BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- South China's Hainan Province has officially launched the free trade account system on January 1, marking a key step forward in the construction of Hainan pilot free trade zone.
The move is one of the 12 major projects designed for the Hainan FTZ in an effort to create favorable conditions and develop a sound business environment in the country's largest free trade zone established in April 2018.
As an important part of financial infrastructure in Hainan FTZ, the Hainan free trade account system is a currency account under which the base currency, Chinese Renminbi, and foreign currencies can be converted into each other.
With unified accounting rules and risk assessment management between the renminbi and foreign currencies, market entities can conduct investment, financing, exchange and other cross-border transactions applicable to the Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zone.
The first commercial banks to launch the FT accounts are the Hainan Branch of the Bank of China and the Haikou Branch of the Pudong Development Bank, while other commercial banks will launch FT accounts afterwards in the first half of 2019.
The first account users include Sanya duty free shop of China Duty Free Group (CDF), Sinopec Hainan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. and other local key enterprises in pillar industries of Hainan such as tourism, tropical high-efficiency agriculture and the Internet. (Edited by Wu Shuang, wushuang2018@xinhua.org)