Kang Baiying, a member of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said at the second plenary session of the second meeting of the eighth Hainan Provincial CPPCC on the 24th that Hainan's business environment has been continuously optimized in recent years, but sustained efforts are still needed on "face" aspects such as the social environment and language environment.

Kang Baiying noted that Hainan Province has rolled out a series of combined measures on the business environment at multiple levels, including planning guidance, policy implementation, institutional innovation, and organizational setup. At present, Hainan is building a "substance" that includes a fair and competitive market environment, an efficient and clean government affairs environment, and a just and transparent legal environment, and its business environment is being continuously optimized.

Building a business environment is a systematic project. In Kang Baiying's view, the due content includes not only the aforementioned "substance" but also the "face" — a friendly and inclusive cultural environment, a civilized and convenient social environment, and a language environment aligned with international standards — and the "face" often determines people's **impression of a certain region.

"To be honest, the **impression Hainan leaves on many people is sometimes not pleasant enough." Kang Baiying noticed that when passengers take taxis at Hainan's airports, some drivers "dislike short trips and prefer long ones," lack the awareness to proactively open doors and load or unload luggage for passengers, and smiling greetings of "Hello" are not often heard; when checking into hotels, some attendants speak impatiently and in a stiff tone, and some cannot proficiently use foreign languages to receive international guests.

Kang Baiying believes that these "small matters on the surface" reflect Hainan's shortcomings in the humanistic soft environment. She therefore suggested that Hainan focus on the fields of social management and public services to enhance the soft power of its business environment:

— Carry out "face" awareness education at the social level, integrating service awareness into "every person, every matter, and every scenario." Through warm and thoughtful service, leave a good impression on enterprises and individuals who come to Hainan to invest, do business, and sightsee;

— Formulate standards and norms for "face." In public service fields such as public health, hotel management, and transportation, formulate and implement standard operating procedures that are aligned with international standards and consistent with the image of a free trade port, and regulate the behavior and conduct of practitioners through details such as dress and appearance, civilized language, and etiquette and courtesy;

— Build a "bilingual" language environment that enhances "face." Promote "Chinese-English" bilingual services in relevant service industries and social sectors, and implement a foreign language learning and training program for all citizens with the basic requirements of "being able to understand, daring to speak, and able to communicate";

— Deeply carry out projects to shape citizens' literacy in the humanistic soft environment, establish and improve reward and punishment mechanisms for the soft business environment of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and foster an open, inclusive, and civilized humanistic spirit of the free trade port.

"'Face' is not the same as a 'vanity project'; it is the external manifestation of a region's degree of civilization." Kang Baiying hopes that through the construction of "face" soft power, the Hainan Free Trade Port will "please those near and attract those far."