Photo taken on Aug. 20, 2019 shows an exterior view of the Lingang area administrative committee in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)
BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- China will take more measures to promote the regional opening-up and strengthen coordinated development of the regions, with more favorable policies titled toward the inland and border areas, the Economic Information Daily reported on Wednesday.
It is noted that provinces of Qinghai, Jilin, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have proposed building pilot free trade zones (FTZs). Wuhan Area of China (Hubei) Pilot Free Trade Zone, formally founded in 2017, is considering expansion to further promoting opening-up and strengthen system innovation.
According to the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), the country will improve layout of the pilot FTZs, enhance functions of the key development and opening zones along the border, the border economic cooperation zones, and the cross-border economic cooperation zones, and support construction of inland open economic pilot zones in Ningxia, Guizhou, and Jiangxi.
In advancing wider openness, the pilot FTZs have been regarded as important carriers.
According to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), in 2020, 18 pilot free trade zones established before August 2020 saw a total of 393,000 new enterprises registered and the amount of the foreign investment in actual use stood at 176.38 billion yuan (about 27.11 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 17.6 percent of the country's total foreign investment. These pilot FTZs recorded the total value of the imports and exports at 4.7 trillion yuan, accounting for 14.7 percent of the country's total imports and exports. (Edited by Hu Pingchao with Xinhua Silk Road, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
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