HAIKOU — South China's island province of Hainan saw its trade with members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) grow rapidly in the first five months of this year, local authorities said.

Exports and imports of goods between Hainan with RCEP member states reached 25.79 billion yuan (about $3.85 billion) during the period, up 44.1 percent year-on-year, according to a media briefing held on July 5 by the information office of the Hainan provincial government.

Foreign trade in services between the province with RCEP member countries exceeded 2.7 billion yuan, accounting for 21.64 percent of the total imports and exports of services in Hainan.

From January to May, Hainan has attracted $47 million of investment from RCEP member states and established 79 new foreign-funded enterprises mainly from countries including Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Thailand.

As one of the country's major opening-up measures in the new era, China aims to build the whole of Hainan Island into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.

An increasing number of foreign-funded companies have shown interest in the policies related to the Hainan free trade port, and the province has made positive results in seizing the opportunities brought by the implementation of RCEP and promoting the two-way investment, said Li Xie, deputy head of the provincial department of commerce.