A Hainan Free Trade Port promotional conference was held on Tuesday in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

It was the third such event during the visit of a business delegation from Hainan province. Nearly 350 people, including representatives of key Vietnamese industries and Chinese enterprises, attended the conference.

The delegation was led by Shen Xiaoming, secretary of the Hainan Committee of the Communist Party of China. It was traveling overseas to attract business investment and talent to the FTP.

The promotional events were the first large-scale international investment promotions to be led by a secretary of the provincial Party committee after COVID-19 control was downgraded in China.

Hainan province and Vietnam have a long-standing foundation for cooperation and new development. In 2022, the import and export volumes of Hainan-Vietnam trade in goods increased by 60 percent over that of 2021, according to the provincial Bureau of International Economic Development.

At the promotional conference, 35 Chinese and Vietnamese enterprises signed agreements for 19 cooperative projects, including products such as coffee beans, coconut milk, dried fruit and vegetables, metals, automobiles, rubber and steel. Both sides also signed contracts for cooperation on tourism, investment and the establishment of factories. The contracted value of the import/export and foreign investment projects exceeded 3.4 billion yuan ($493 million).

Hainan's Haima Automobile Group signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation with Vietnam's Carvivu company, which included a sales order for 10,000 cars at a total price of about 1 billion yuan over the next three years. They also expressed their intent to jointly carry out knocked-down assembly of new energy vehicles in Vietnam.

"There's a great consumption potential in Vietnam's market. The country has introduced incentive policies for new energy vehicles," said Lu Guogang, Haima's chairman.

He said the signing was an important step for the company in utilizing the geographical and policy advantages of the Hainan FTP to develop the ASEAN market.

Haima plans to set up assembly bases in ASEAN. Under the RCEP framework, the company will use preferential tariff policies to cover the entire ASEAN market, Lu said.

Wei Huaxiang, the Chinese consul in Ho Chi Minh City, said the preferential policies of the Hainan free trade port will bring a new round of development opportunities to ASEAN, including Vietnam, and will strengthen economic and trade ties with Vietnam by injecting fresh energy into the development of the Hainan FTP.

"The free trade port currently has a high level of openness, and it is a new bench mark for China's opening-up. The free trade port's promotional conference will effectively help to upgrade Sino-Vietnamese economic and trade cooperation," Wei said.