Participants visit the booth of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at the fourth China International Consumer Products Expo in Haikou, South China's Hainan Province on April 15, 2024. Photo: Qi Xijia/GT

Companies from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) are flocking to the 4th China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE), eyeing the favorable policies in South China's Hainan Province and the massive consumption market in the Chinese mainland.

This year, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is attending the CICPE for the fourth year, leading a delegation of 24 enterprises and 40 brands with a floor area expanding to 600 square meters, the largest in history.

"This is my second time attending the CICPE, and some of our old customers have come specifically to our booth to place orders," Ken Wong, director of Hong Kong-based All Times Healthy Co, told the Global Times on Monday.

In addition to providing a springboard to the massive Chinese consumption market, the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) and its policy dividends have attracted a number of Hong Kong companies to settle in Hainan.

A master plan for the FTP released in 2020 aimed to build Hainan into a globally influential high-level FTP by the middle of the century. An FTP system focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation will be "basically established" in the province by 2025 and become "more mature" by 2035, according to the plan.

"With the establishment of the Hainan FTP, we believe that the benefits Hong Kong enjoyed in the past will be repeated in Hainan and even surpassed. This has strengthened our confidence in investing in Hainan," Charles Yang, general manager of health products dealer AUSupreme International Trade (Hainan), told the Global Times on Monday.

The company is participating in the CICPE for the fourth consecutive year. It established a branch in Hainan in 2020. 

"What we value most is that the personal income tax and corporate income tax ceilings in the Hainan FTP have been adjusted to 15 percent, even lower than HKSAR's 17 percent. This is a significant advantage in terms of taxation," Yang said.

The HKTDC on Saturday signed a cooperation agreement with the Hainan Provincial Bureau of International Economic Development to deepen collaboration, making the best use of the CICPE and helping Hainan and Hong Kong companies explore domestic and overseas markets.

"Hong Kong and Hainan have strong complementarity in economic development. On the one hand, Hong Kong companies can leverage the policy dividends of the Hainan FTP to fully explore opportunities in the mainland market. On the other hand, Hong Kong has rich experience in finance, logistics and services, and it can join forces with Hainan to expand overseas together," Peter Wong, regional director of the HKTDC in southern China, told the Global Times.