Blue economy is the next key phase of China-ASEAN economic integration

Hainan Free Trade Port should position itself as the platform where ASEAN's marine resources meet China's vast consumer market, leveraging its preferential policies to process, add value and move goods tariff-free into the mainland, experts said at a forum on Wednesday.

The China (Hainan)-ASEAN 2026 Think Tank Forum, held in Haikou, Hainan province, under the theme "Institutional Opening-Up and New Quality Maritime Productive Forces: Forging New Drivers for China-ASEAN Blue Economic Cooperation", drew scholars who argued that the blue economy is where the next phase of China-ASEAN economic integration will be won.

Peter T. C. Chang, research associate of the Malaysia-China Friendship Association, Malaysia, described Hainan as "an absolutely critical" player.

"It has open access for our raw materials to come in here, with a 30 percent value-added processing duty-free policy, and has broad access to the Chinese market," he said. "Hainan FTP is a strategic opening - it's an open door."

Suthiphand Chirathivat, chairman of the Board, Central Group, and professor emeritus of economics and founding executive director of ASEAN Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, said Hainan's geographic proximity makes it ASEAN's gateway to China's domestic market, with complementarity in the blue economy. He pointed to Yangpu Port, the Greater Bay Area and the newly launched Pinglu Canal as infrastructure that will strengthen Hainan's role.