China continues expansion of pilot FTZs

Three new pilot free trade zones (FTZs) will be built in Beijing, Hunan and Anhui, and the pilot FTZ in Zhejiang will be expanded, the State Council said.

Beijing FTZ will be able to play a leading role in opening up the service sector with the relaxing of access limits in the service trade. And it will build a high-level opening-up platform for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Hunan FTZ will become a world-class advanced manufacturing cluster, an international investment and trade corridor linking the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and a leading area for in-depth economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa.

Anhui FTZ will strive to play a pioneering role in scientific and technological innovation by establishing cutting-edge R&D platforms and bases for basic and applied research.

Zhejiang FTZ will be turned into a demonstration zone for the digital economy through new infrastructure construction for the internet of things, industrial internet and artificial intelligence.

Since August 2013, 21 pilot FTZs have been built in six batches.

In the first seven months of this year, more than 3,300 new foreign-funded enterprises entered 18 pilot FTZs. With a total land area of less than 0.4 percent of the country, they saw 90 billion yuan in utilized foreign capital and 2.7 trillion yuan in imports and exports, respectively 16.8 percent and 13.5 percent of the nation’s total.