(Yicai Global) Aug. 14 -- Germany’s Bielefeld University of Applied Science will set up China’s first institution of higher education wholly owned by a foreign university in the country’s southern-most province of Hainan, the Hainan Free Trade Port announced on its WeChat account today.

The college, which is also the first educational program set up by a German public university on its own abroad, is expected to be located in the province’s Yangpu Economic Development Zone as part of the upcoming Hainan Free Trade Port, it said.

The institution will cultivate high-quality and international talent in the province while at the same time promoting the establishment of high-quality German enterprises in Hainan, it said.

Consistent with free port zones worldwide, the university will be permitted tax-free imports of infrastructure materials and teaching equipment. The professors will be granted visa-free entry and exit and they will given a discounted individual income tax rate.

The free port zone is also building a municipal infrastructure, including foreign language schools, international kindergardens and first-rate hospitals, as it seeks to upgrade its facilities to cater to a more global workforce.

The college plans to enroll its first batch of students in 2021. It will offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economic information, enterprise economy, economic engineering, intelligent logistics, smart technology, mechatronic integration, application automation, data science, industrial design and service, business management, project management and other subjects.

Bielefeld is the largest university of applied sciences in Germany’s economically developed Ostwestfalen-Lippe region. It offers 37 undergraduate programs, 25 master's programs and several vocational educational programs. It also runs a talent cultivation project that connects vocational training with higher education.

The Free Trade Port, which covers the whole of China’s second largest island, is due to be in operation by 2025. It will set up a free port policy and institutional system over the next five year and aims to become a highly liberalized, legalized, internationalized and modernized free trade port by 2050, according to the central government's blueprint.

Editor: Kim Taylor