When we arrived in Hainan exactly three years ago, soon after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in China, I could not recall hearing substantive news about the Hainan Free Trade Port in the English-language media at the time. Of course, you have every right to question the veracity of my short-term memory, as I am already a septuagenarian.
However, as a Singaporean, this news would surely have attracted my attention because Singapore is considered the foremost Free Trade Port in the world by multiple measures, and the emergence of Hainan Free Trade Port (HNFTP), so close to Singapore, would certainly have piqued my curiosity, for Hainan would be expected to develop into a viable competitor to Singapore in the coming years.
Of course, Singapore is not the world’s busiest container port. It is clear that with the vast majority of major manufacturing hubs located in China, the busiest container ports must be also be in China. In fact, according to the latest maritime rankings, China has seven ports in the Top 10 Busiest Container Ports of the World. Shanghai tops the list; Singapore comes in second; Busan is in seventh place; and Jebel Ali of UAE secures the last spot. However, Singapore is clearly the busiest transhipment port in the world, and it is evident that Hainan, which is not a major manufacturing hub in China, will develop as a transhipment port, albeit for the large domestic market of mainland China.
The Singapore Prime Minister, Mr Lawrence Wong, whose father migrated from Wenchang, Hainan, to Malaya and then Singapore, recently attended the 25th Bo’ao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2026 to deliver a keynote speech at the Opening Plenary. In his speech, Mr Lawrence Wong highlighted that “we are witnessing a worrying breakdown of the institutions and norms that have long anchored the global system. For decades, international law and multilateral rules provided guardrails for states’ behaviour. They did not eliminate conflict, but they tempered it and brought a measure of predictability to international relations.”
He acknowledged that “in today’s more complex and fractured world, multilateral agreements are extremely hard to reach.” He then stressed that “we must find new ways to cooperate. To be clear, this does not mean abandoning multilateralism. On the contrary, we must continue to strengthen and reform global institutions — including the WTO and the United Nations — so that they remain effective and relevant.” He then recommended that “alongside these efforts, we also need more flexible approaches to cooperation. One practical way is for smaller groups of like-minded countries and partners to create plurilateral arrangements. These can move faster – to test ideas, set standards and deliver results.”
In his keynote speech at the Opening Plenary, Mr Lawrence essentially addressed the broader global issues and challenges that are “driving up food and energy prices, disrupting supply chains and raising the risks of a global economic slowdown.” However, while at the 2026 Boao Forum, Mr Lawrence Wong also addressed the ‘like-minded’ relationship between the emerging Hainan Free Trade Port and the established Singapore Free Trade Port.
Posted on Instagram on 24 March 2026, Mr Lawrence Wong emphasized that “we rely heavily on trade, and we do better in a world where trade is more open and where there are more Free Trade Ports. Between Hainan and Singapore, we can continue to strengthen our collaboration, especially in ways where we have complementary strengths. Hainan will eventually be a gateway to the large Chinese domestic market. Singapore, too, is a gateway for ASEAN. So when we link up these two Free Trade Ports together, we can become gateways for our respective regions. By staying open, and by being more connected to one another, we send a very clear message to the world that openness, cooperation, and free trade is the way forward, even in a more challenged and turbulent world.”
While there will be keen competition between Hainan and Singapore, Mr Lawrence Wong is very positive that ‘when we cooperate to make the trade pie bigger, we will both receive a bigger slice of the trade in the process.’
In a subsequent article, I will take the opportunity to present my personal take on this very salient aspect of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
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