Free Trade Zone

中国自由贸易试验区

China's first Free Trade Zone (自由贸易试验区) was established in the 1st tier city of Shanghai in 2013, three more were added in 2015, and a further seven in 2017. Each of the China Free Trade Zones are named after the province or municipality they are located in, and the majority are comprised of 3 different areas. Whilst the first four China free trade zones were centered around coastal areas with sea ports, six of the seven most recent zones are located inland, indicating a push to develop the economy of China's interior. It was announced in April 2018 that the whole island of Hainan, which is a massive 33,920 km² and is already one of China's special economic zones, will be transformed into a free trade zone. An ambitious schedule to establish this free trade zone by 2020 and have a fully developed free trade system by 2035 has been outlined. Subsequent to this, plans to set up a further 6 free trade zones, in Yunnan, Guangxi, Heilongjiang, Hebei, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces, were announced in August 2019. In September 2020, government documents concerning the further plans of FTZ in Beijing, Hunan, Anhui and Zhejiang were issued.

Other Development Zone Types