China is expected to roll out 5 to 8 free trade zones (FTZs) after annual two sessions in March at the soonest, the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily reported on Tuesday.
The new batch of FTZs will be located in inland and near-border areas, given the coordinated development of regions and the openness pattern, as the previous two batches of FTZs are in coastal areas, said the person familiar with the matter.
Compared with the pilot FTZs in Shanghai, Guangdong, Fujian and Tianjin, the new FTZs will focus more on the country's Belt and Road Initiative and become important areas for implementation of the initiative in the domestic market.
Meanwhile, they will also explore a new path for development of the inland regions to guide opening-up of the inland areas, said the report. As many as 21 provinces have came up with plans on building FTZs in their governmental work reports for their local "two sessions", meetings of the local legislatures and local political advisory bodies.
They are provinces excluding Beijing, Hebei Province, Jilin Province, Shanxi Province, Qinghai Province and Tibet Autonomous Region and the four localities which already have FTZs, namely, Shanghai, Guangdong Province, Tianjin and Fujian Province.
Latest comments