Hainan Province is located in the South China Sea, offshore from the southernmost part of China. The 25 km wide Qiongzhou Strait separates Hainan from the mainland. Formerly a Special Administrative Region of the Guangdong province, Hainan became a province and a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in 1988. It is both China's smallest province and its largest SEZ. Relatively less developed than China's southern coastal regions, Hainan focuses its economy on developing tourism and tropical cash crops. Often compared with Hawaii, the island's natural beauty with lush green highlands and picturesque beach landscapes is transforming the island into an international tourism centre. Hainan is also rich in minerals, especially bauxite, copper iron ore, and tin. The average growth of the GDP between 1998 and 2004 was almost 10%.

Principal agricultural productions:

Hainan adds up 42% of the tropical cultures listed in China and holds the first place for rubber, the fruits tropical (in particular coconuts), the palm trees with oil, the coffee and peanuts; important surfaces in soy and cereals. 53% of the island east covered by forests. It is also necessary to note the importance of the foreign investments in the transformation of the agricultural produce. The island abounds in natural sources.

Economic and industrial sector:

The province put mainly on the rise of tourism for its development. It has a powerful airline company - distinct from the three new large air poles - which increases each year its fleet. The provincial authorities of the island have triple ambition:

1. To make of Hainan a tourist destination of luxury appraisal of the Asian customers, which requires to attract the great names of international hotel trade (still little presents, have regard to the potential,

2. To develop oil explorations with the support of the Chinese National Company of Oils,

3. To develop the tropical cultures - against-seasons also - considerable sources of income. The inauguration, at the end of 2002, of a service of ferry-train connecting the island to the continent (province of Guangdong) made it possible to increase in an important way the exchanges with the southernmost part of China.

It is necessary to also stress the importance of the refining, in direct connection with the hydrocarbon offshore oil rig reserves of the province (a major project rests in the supply natural gas of Guangdong starting from Hainan). The basin of Yingehai, that of Qiong and finally that of the Zhu River are equipped with 5.000 Mandelevium m3 of natural gas reserves. Put in operation in September 2003 of the pipeline Dongfang-Yangpu-Haikou (which will be supplied to natural gas 80%).

"Industries of support" - petrochemical, car, pharmacy (62 units for turnover of 3, 3 billion RMB in 2004) and paper mill - recorded strong growths in 2004:

Production of nitrate fertilizer in rise of 95, 5%

Automobile group MAZDA + 21, 7%

Pharmacy + 20, 9%

Industry is directed towards new technologies: the number of companies NTIC at the end of 2004 was 116 of which 28 have a turnover higher than 100 million RMB.

The tertiary sector is dominated by the services related to tourism.

The industrial and construction

Industrial economy has maintained fast growth momentum. 2005, the province's industrial added value 16.662 billion yuan, according to comparable prices and the same method of calculation, the growth of 17.0% over the previous year, the "10th Five-Year Plan" period at an average annual rate of 16.6%, the GDP rose from 19.1% to 13.4%, the economic growth rate increased to 28.5% from 14.1%. Industry "short-term" gradually lengthens the technical content of economic growth has improved significantly. Among them, the added value of industrial enterprises of scale 14.847 billion yuan, an increase of 18.6%, the "10th Five-Year Plan" period at an average annual rate of 18.5%, "big companies to enter, big projects pull" effect highlights.

In the above-scale industrial added value is 8.566 billion yuan of state-owned holding enterprises, an increase of 9.3% over the previous year. In the above-scale industrial added value, the industrial added value of 9.74 billion yuan, 18.9 % over the previous year. Light industrial added value of 5.107 billion yuan, an increase of 18.2%. Sub-economic categories, the added value of 3.876 billion yuan of state-owned enterprises, joint-stock enterprises 19.9%; growth in the added value of 277 million yuan, an increase of 30.5% of the added value of 5.789 billion yuan joint-stock enterprises, an increase of 2.0% foreign enterprises in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and the added value of 4.107 billion yuan, an increase of bottom collective enterprises was completed 0.53 billion yuan, a drop of 17.2% in other types of industries had an added value of 745 million yuan, an increase of 12.3%. Sales rate of industrial products was 98.7%, 1.0 percentage points higher than that of last year. Some output of major industrial products that meet market demand to grow substantially.