The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone aims to double its economic scale compared with that in 2018 by the end of 2025, as well as simultaneously establish mechanisms and a market climate that are favorable for the orderly and free flow of international and domestic factors, according to the zone's recently released 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).

To reach this goal, Shanghai FTZ will carry out higher-level policies to promote the liberalization and convenience of trade, as well as conduct stress tests for higher-standard opening-up, said the local administration.

The FTZ will improve the management of its customs, optimize the spot market for bulk commodities, as well as strengthen efforts to cultivate high-tech industrial clusters. It will also aim to facilitate more opportunities to pilot the country's and Shanghai's new measures for further opening up in the service industry.

The plan also proposes that Shanghai FTZ transfers its role from being a distributing center of global trade and a foreign capital magnet to being an operating hub of global investment and trade, as well as a headquarters cluster that allocates global resources.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the FTZ will also form a new industrial structure, emphasizing innovation in biomedicine, smart manufacturing, integrated circuits, as well as automobiles and parts.

It will push forward the integration and mutual promotion of traditional and new economies as a major step to upgrade its economic structure.

The plan has made clear the goal of building the zone into the "first stop of imported high-quality commodities", with detailed steps including promoting the online and offline development of the countries and regions' pavilions, as well as expanding cross-border trade from consumer goods to industrial commodities.