Hainan to open five duty-free stores for daily goods

Hainan province will open five duty-free stores for daily consumer goods across three cities on Feb 11, provincial authorities announced Friday, marking the first retail outlets under a new national policy designed to lower living costs and share the benefits of the island’s free trade port with residents.

The stores will be located in Haikou, Sanya, and Danzhou, according to Lu Wei, deputy director of the Hainan Provincial Department of Commerce. Haikou will open three stores, with one each in the districts of Guomao, Chengxi, and West Coast. Sanya will open one store in the Fenghuang Coast area of its central business district, and Danzhou will open one at its Summer Plaza.

The openings follow a policy jointly introduced on Thursday by the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Taxation Administration. The policy allows eligible Hainan residents to purchase imported consumer goods free of import tariffs, import value-added tax, and consumption tax, within an annual quota.

Qualified residents include Chinese citizens with a Hainan identification card, residence permit, or local social security card, as well as foreign nationals living and working in Hainan with valid residence permits. Each person is entitled to an annual duty-free allowance of 10,000 yuan (about $1,440), with no limit on the number of transactions.

The eligible products cover daily necessities such as selected food, beverages, household chemicals, home goods, and maternal and infant items. All goods purchased under the policy are for personal use and cannot be resold.

Officials said the measure aims to reduce living expenses and meet diverse consumer demand.

Lu added that Hainan will evaluate the initial stores and gradually expand the network “until all cities and counties on the island are covered”.

The opening of the daily consumer goods duty-free stores coincides with the Chinese New Year period. “We will tailor offerings to holiday spending, encourage the stores to promote festive popular products, and increase the supply of holiday goods,” he said.

The government also plans to provide a Chinese New Year gift package in the form of duty-free consumption vouchers for daily goods and coordinate with financial institutions and payment platforms to offer additional payment discounts.