Guangdong Free Trade Zone to launch on March 18: sources
Ambitious scheme to launch on March 18, after the end of NPC; unclear whether three other free-trade zones, hit by delays, will follow suit
The high-profile Guangdong Free Trade Zone (FTZ) will be launched on March 18, soon after the National People's Congress, an officially backed trade association and a source close to the matter said.
The government-supported Guangdong Cross-Border E-Commerce Association said on its official microblog and in a notice to its members that the date of the zone's launch had been rescheduled for next Wednesday as Hu Chunhua, the Communist Party head of Guangdong and Zhu Xiaodan , the province's governor, would attend the unveiling ceremony and give a speech.
Another source close to the matter confirmed the date.
What we know ... and don’t know about China’s plans for Guangdong Free Trade Zone
"The provincial leaders intend to launch the free-trade zone on [March 18], if no surprise arises," the source said.
The country's three new free-trade zones - Fujian, Guangdong and Tianjin - were originally scheduled to open on February 27 and March 1, but were then postponed until after the annual parliamentary sessions, which end on Sunday.
Shanghai's free-trade zone, the first one in the country, has also delayed the official relaunch of its expanded zone. However, it is not clear if the Fujian, Tianjin and Shanghai zones will also open on March 18.
The postponements were ordered because top leaders were unsatisfied with the latest proposals by the local governments, some Guangdong-based experts said late last month.
"I think [debate over] the date of the zone's launch has already settled down," said Lin Jiang , a member of a think tank under the Guangdong government and deputy chief of Sun Yat-sen University's free-trade zone Research Institute.