China's Hainan to run pilot zone for building int'l tourist island

South China's Hainan Province will set up a pilot zone to spearhead its drive for developing an international tourist island.

The zone will be located at Longwan development area in Qionghai City and will cover 38 square kilometers after two phases of construction. The first phase will requirement an investment of up to 100 billion yuan (14.7 billion U.S. dollars), according to a meeting of the leading group for building of Hainan international tourist island held here Sunday.

Sources from the meeting said the pilot zone would be used as a test field for adoption of new special policies for items ranging from duty-free shopping, sports lottery, to tourist visa granting, and for gathering experience in new forms of development and product innovations.

A new company, Hainan international tourists island development and construction corporation, will be set up and will act as the developer of the pilot zone, said the sources.

Hainan had planned to invest more than 3.5 trillion yuan in developing itself into an international tourist island in the coming 11 years. Most of the money will go to tourism and other modern services. Of the total, 1.2 trillion yuan will be spent in the 2010-2015 period.

Hainan plans to receive 31.6 million tourists every day in the three years up to 2012. By 2020, the tertiary sector's share in the provincial economy will hit 60 percent.

Source: Xinhua