China has launched the Hainan International Art Trading Center, a major part of its master plan to boost the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP), in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province.

The project, supported by central authorities and cultural departments, is one of the key projects during the construction of the FTP, according to local authorities at the opening ceremony of the 2021 China Culture and Museum Industry Development Conference on Saturday.

The new Center is comprised of an online international art trading platform, as well as eight on-site functional sub-centers, including the central art business center, financial center, big data center, and logistics center.

It will integrate multiple business formats and sectors of culture, technology, finance, and tourism to provide services for the entire industry chain of international cultural art, aiming to become a new hotspot for the global art trading.

Wang Yong, chairman of the Center, noted that the advantages of the FTP and support from national policies have made Hainan the ideal place for the project, as they will provide facilitating conditions in terms of talents, logistics and capital flow, among others, and will allow these elements to gather on the platform.

"[The Center] will be a platform for more artworks, those from overseas and the domestic ones, to do dual circulation here. It will also establish a platform to be shared jointly by artists, collectors and museums to serve the construction of the Hainan FTP," he added.

The Center will also serve as a platform of diverse organizations, including the China Overseas Returned Cultural Relics and Artworks Collection and Exhibition Center, International Cultural Relics Exchange Platform (Hainan), and China Cultural and Museum Industry Development Think Tank.

It has also signed a series of strategic cooperation agreements with more than 10 institutions, such as the Software Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Silk Road International Chamber of Commerce, to enhance the multi-channel, new-format cooperation on international cultural art trading and exchanges.

In April, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce released a master plan that set out a series of measures supporting the construction of the Hainan International Art Trading Center in the Hainan FTP.

The plan has also pledged to provide policies in the areas of customs clearance facilitation, bonded goods supervision, as well as warehousing and logistics.

(Cover: Aerial view of the under-construction Ocean Flower Island in Hainan, China. /CFP)