A visitor walks through the international healthcare consumption section of the sixth China International Consumer Products Expo in Qionghai, Hainan province, on April 16. GAO JING/XINHUA
For Michael Heilig, who is from Germany's federal association for small and medium-sized enterprises, his trip to Hainan province last week felt almost destined.
His Chinese name, "Hai Li Ge", carries a special meaning. "Hai" means sea, "Li" means reason and trust, while "Ge" means character and taste. "I believe these qualities — facing the sea, rationality, character — can be transported to Hainan and reflected in our cooperation," Heilig said.
Heilig was one of more than 100 executives from 19 countries and regions who landed in Hainan on May 25-26 for the International Life and Health Enterprises Hainan Visit event, co-hosted by CITIC Group and the Hainan provincial government. Among them were 80 foreign life-health companies and 105 senior executives from global giants such as Siemens, Pfizer and Novo Nordisk, as well as a host of German "hidden champions".
What brought them here, in the heat of late May, was not the island's famous beaches, though those were a welcome bonus, but the accelerating dividends of the island-wide special customs operations, which kicked off in Hainan Free Trade Port on Dec 18.
