HAIKOU - Southern China's island province of Hainan saw more than 162,000 new market entities in the first eight months of this year, up 19.8 percent year-on-year, local authorities said.

Among the new market entities, there were more than 75,000 new enterprises in the period, up 75.26 percent year-on-year, according to the provincial market supervision administration.

In August alone, the province's new enterprises exceeded 14,700, a year-on-year increase of over 250 percent.

In recent years, Hainan has taken a series of measures to optimize its business environment. On June 1, a plan that aims to build the province into a high-level free trade port was released, attracting more domestic and overseas investors to start businesses in Hainan.