Ships are busy loading and unloading at a port in Yangpu Economic Development Zone. [Photo/WeChat account gjlydsb]

Located in the Yangpu Peninsula in the northwest of Hainan, the development zone was approved as a national development zone enjoying the preferential policies of free trade zone by the State Council in 1992. In 2007, the State Council approved the establishment of the Yangpu Bonded Port in the development zone. It was listed as a "new industrialization demonstration base (petrochemical)" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2010 and a "national cyclic transformation pilot demonstration park" by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance in 2014.

Yangpu Economic Development Zone boasts the shortest distance to international main sea routes among all of China's petrochemical bases. It is the nearest development zone from the South China Sea, and is the bridgehead for the construction of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and the regional economic cooperation in the Beibu Gulf area. The development zone is surrounded by sea in three directions and richly endowed with deep-water wharf and convenient transportation. In addition, it is a zone downwind and conducive to develop port-oriented industries.

The zone has an approved area of 30 sq km with a planned area of 120 sq km. About 50 sq km have been developed with an investment of 77.41 billion yuan ($11.71 billion) since its establishment more than 20 years ago.

According to the orientation for industries set by the local government, it will be built into a shipping hub, a petrochemical base, an oil reserve base and a pulp production base of Southeast Asia. With years of development, it has gradually created an industry cluster effect.

As a group of influential projects were put into operation and the infrastructure facilities have been continuously improving, Yangpu Economic Development Zone will embrace unprecedented opportunities, particularly in oil and gas chemical industry, logistics trade, processing and manufacturing and the marine resource development. 

It focuses on inviting investment in the following fields:

1. Services relating to the resource exploration in the South China Sea: marine engineering, port construction and operation, South China Sea resource exploration service and petroleum product trading center.

2. Petrochemical and supporting industries: ethylene, propylene, styrene, ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, OX downstream products, rubber and plastics processing and industrial gas.

3. Bonded port-oriented services: Export-oriented processing, warehousing logistics, display, international procurement and distribution, commodity trading.

4. Modern processing and manufacturing: equipment manufacturing and printing and packaging.