4-fold expansion plan for city's FTZ
Print Edition
CHINA is planning to expand four-fold the Shanghai pilot free trade zone to cover more areas in the Pudong New Area as part of efforts to deepen reform and opening up.
The move is included in a State Council proposal submitted to China’s legislature that also calls for three new free trade zones in Tianjin and Guangdong and Fujian provinces, the People’s Daily reported yesterday, citing Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng.
The expanded Shanghai free trade zone will include the Lujiazui financial zone, Jinqiao development zone and Zhangjiang high-tech zone, Gao said.
When contacted by Shanghai Daily, an official of the Shanghai free trade zone said they were not yet clear on the details of the expansion plan.
The expansion is expected to increase the area of the Shanghai zone to 120.27 square kilometers, compared with the 28.78 square kilometers at present, according to maps released by the Economic Daily yesterday.
Currently, the Shanghai zone consists of the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, Waigaoqiao Free Trade Logistics Park, Yangshan Free Trade Port Area and the Pudong Airport Comprehensive Free Trade Zone.
“The expansion will allow Shanghai to give full play to the advantages of the Pudong New Area and to test foreign investment management reform, service sector opening and government administration system reform in a broader scope,” Gao said.
The Shanghai zone has witnessed an influx of new companies since its establishment last September, driving up demand for business space.
By mid-September, more than 12,000 new companies had set up in the zone, with 13.7 percent of them foreign-funded.
The extension will remove geographic restraints that have been a deterrent for the zone to push forward opening up, especially in service sectors, one of the priorities of the zone’s reform agenda, experts say.
Currently, investors are held back by the ambiguity, for example, about whether a hospital or school in the zone can provide services to residents living outside the zone.
The inclusion of Lujiazui, Shanghai’s financial hub, will provide a larger field for the city to promote financial liberalization, which has lagged behind other reforms in the zone.
The expanded Shanghai zone will be the largest compared with the other three planned zones.
According to the maps, Tianjin’s zone will cover 119.9 square kilometers, Guangdong zone 116.2 square kilometers and Fujian zone 118.04 square kilometers.
China may also ease investment rules in all four zones, pending approval by the legislature, according to Xinhua news agency.
The State Council plans to remove an administrative approval for foreign companies that want to set up ventures in these free trade zones, Gao said. Instead, these companies will only need to report their business plans to authorities.
Since these preferential policies conflict with the current laws on foreign companies, Sino-foreign joint ventures and Taiwan investors, the State Council will ask for the legislature’s authorization to adjust regulations in the free trade zones, he said.
The temporary adjustment is expected to begin in March next year and will last three years, Gao told the People’s Daily.
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