A pre-investment assessment of whether the Free Trade Port fits a specific business — activity, structure, location, and running cost — made while changing the answer is still cheap.
What this covers
- The intended activity screened against the foreign investment negative list and Hainan's encouraged-industry catalogue
- An assessment of which Free Trade Port incentives the business could realistically reach, and which it could not
- Entity structure options compared against the activity, ownership, and capital the business actually requires, with the trade-offs stated
- A location and park comparison where the activity's requirements differ by division
- An indicative cost and timeline range covering formation, first-year compliance, and the headcount a defensible substance position implies
- A written assessment that says plainly where Hainan is not the right answer for this business
Our services
The questions that are only cheap to ask earlyActivity permissibility, incentive reach, substance cost and first-year running cost, resolved before a structure is fixed.
Almost everything that determines whether a Hainan entity works is settled before anything is filed. Whether the activity is permitted at all, which incentives it can reach, what substance the intended tax position will require, and what the first year actually costs are all consequences of decisions taken at the assessment stage — and each of them is materially harder to revisit once a certificate has been issued and capital has been committed against it.
Two lists, two different questionsThe negative list decides whether foreign capital may do this at all; the encouraged catalogue decides whether doing it here reaches the preferential regime.
The screening itself is unglamorous and worth doing properly. The intended activity goes against the current foreign investment negative list and against Hainan's own encouraged-industry catalogue, because those two answer different questions: the first is whether foreign capital may conduct the activity, the second is whether conducting it here reaches the preferential regime that is the reason to be in Hainan rather than elsewhere in China. A business can clear the first comfortably and miss the second entirely.
A written assessment, not a proposalStructure options, an indicative cost and timeline range, and a plain answer where that answer is 'not here'.
We deliver this as a written assessment rather than a proposal. It covers the structure options and their trade-offs, an indicative cost and timeline range, and a location comparison where the island's divisions differ in ways that matter for the activity. Where the honest answer is that the business does not belong in Hainan, or does not yet, the assessment says so — that finding is worth more at this stage than a formation engagement would be.
Why choose HainanInc?
Screened against the negative list and the encouraged catalogue before anything is filed
An indicative cost and timeline range, not a formation quote
A written answer that includes 'not here' where that is the answer
Case study
Untangling an SPV's Reporting Obligations After a Structure Change
A special purpose vehicle connected to a capital markets transaction changed its asset composition mid-year, and the regulatory reporting calendar built for its original structure no longer matched what was actually required.
Composite illustration based on common engagement patterns; not a specific client.
Related insights
A Founder's Checklist for Hainan Company Formation
The published incorporation timeline for a Hainan Free Trade Port entity and the actual one rarely match. Here is what determines the difference, laid out in the order it usually comes up.
Economic Substance Requirements in Practice: A Framework for Compliance
Economic substance is no longer a theoretical compliance concept for Hainan-based entities — it is an active area of regulatory review. We outline a practical framework for demonstrating it.