New area to be added to the Shanghai pilot Free Trade Zone
March 12, 2019 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
A plan for adding a new area to the pilot free trade zone in Shanghai has been worked out, according to Li Qiang, Communist Party Secretary of Shanghai. The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the Shanghai government are now working on details of the plan which will be submitted to the central government after proposals have been collected from the public. The plans and general guidelines for the integration of the Yangtze River Delta region are also being worked out by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Shanghai and Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces are working on a plan to construct a demonstration zone for integrated development of the region.
The expansion of the free trade zone will come with more innovations in institutions and their functions to make the zone more influential and competitive in the global market. New reform measures will be tried out during the integration of the Yangtze River Delta region before being introduced elsewhere in China. “Shanghai opens up to the world through the Pudong New Area and free trade zone, and also to the rest of the country, through the future demonstration zone for integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region,” Party Secretary Li said.
In Pudong, financial services have become the most influential business sector which generated nearly CNY300 billion of added value for the new area last year, accounting for more than half of all added value in the city. “Pudong is home to 60% of Shanghai’s licensed financial institutes, while nine of the 10 largest asset management institutions in the world have set up their headquarters in Lujiazui,” said Hang Yingwei, Director of the Pudong New Area. Pudong also aims to become a science and technology hub. One-fourth of Shanghai’s technology companies are based in Pudong. Among the firms that integrate finance and science and technology, there are two household names — Alipay and UnionPay. Lujiazui Financial City and Zhangjiang Science City will be better integrated, Li Qiang said.
Chen Mingbo, Vice Secretary General of the Shanghai government and Director of the Economy and Information Technology Commission, said more investments in integrated circuits, bio-medicine and high-end equipment are expected this year. Construction on 360 projects in the three areas with an investment of over CNY330 billion will start this year. The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was officially established in September 2013, The pilot area has almost quadrupled its size since then, having grown from a 28.78-square-kilometer strip of land to some 120 square kilometers. Three more FTZs were set up in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian in 2014. In April 2017, another seven free trade zones were established. A year later, the Hainan free trade zone was launched, and hence there are now 12 free trade zones in China. There are more than 3,500 free trade zones in 165 countries and regions around the world, the Shanghai Daily reports.
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