China’s commerce minister backs plan for free-trade ports to further economy’s opening-up
Shanghai is expected to be the first to gain approval for a free-trade port
With China’s commerce minister Zhong Shan offering verbal support to building the country’s free-trade ports this week, Beijing’s renewed efforts to pick up the free-trade mantle could contain some substance this time.
To accelerate the opening-up of the Chinese economy, Zhong said greater freedom should be given to the local governments in running the free-trade zones, which would eventually be developed into free-trade ports.
His statement was published on Tuesday by the Ministry of Commerce.
Zhong is the latest senior government official to throw his weight behind the ambitious plan to turn some of the mainland’s developed cities into Hong Kong-like international metropolises, following Vice-Premier Wang Yang’s calls to build the mainland’s own free-trade ports in November.
There will be some policy breakthroughs in this round of efforts to build free marketplaces on par with Hong Kong and Singapore, according to Chen Bo, a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and an adviser to local governments including Shanghai on policymaking.
“For Shanghai, it definitely aims at the highest international standards in developing a free-trade port,” said Chen.