White Paper on 10th Anniversary of Shanghai FTZ released

Around 84,000 companies have been registered in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone since its inception 10 years ago, and this figure is a testament to the zone's vibrant business environment, which was made possible by many institutional innovations first experimented here, according to the White Paper on the 10th Anniversary of the Shanghai FTZ, which was released on Wednesday.

Of all the 302 innovative institutional measures experimented in the 21 Chinese FTZs, 145 were first rolled out in the Shanghai FTZ, according to the White Paper, which was compiled by the Shanghai FTZ administration.

Pudong New Area, where the Shanghai FTZ is included, has also benefited from the various innovations. Between the FTZ's inception 10 years ago and the end of 2022, Pudong had attracted 18,691 foreign-invested projects that had a combined registered capital of $217.3 billion.

In 2022, Pudong's regional GDP amounted to more than 1.6 trillion yuan ($220 billion) - 2.5 times of the size in 2013.

In a survey that polled 931 companies operating in the Shanghai FTZ, more than 80 percent of them believe that the establishment of the Shanghai FTZ has improved the overall business environment in the city, according to the White Paper.

Sixty-eight percent of these companies are from the service industry, 18 percent are from the manufacturing industry and the remainder is made up of those from other industries.

Over 90 percent of the polled companies acknowledged that government efficiency has been steadily improving over the past 10 years, while more than 80 percent said local government policies have been becoming more transparent.

The majority of these companies expressed confidence that more reform and innovative measures will be introduced in the Shanghai FTZ in the coming years.

Officially launched on Sept 29, 2013, the Shanghai FTZ is the first of its kind in China and covers more than 240 square kilometers. The FTZ had undergone two expansions in 2014 and 2019.