Shanghai FTZ: A test field for deepening reform, opening-up

The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone celebrates its 10 anniversary this year. [Photo/Xinmin News]

When Michael Kruppe took up the role of general manager of the Shanghai New International Expo Center in 2014, only four venues within the center were open.

Within just a decade, the center has become one of the busiest exhibition halls in the world thanks to the many preferential policies rolled out by the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (Shanghai FTZ) to attract businesspeople from all over the world.

"My friends all like to call me 'Michael the Connector' because what I do is help global partners connect to China's huge market," Kruppe said.

As China's first free trade zone, the Shanghai FTZ has served as an effective test field for deepening reform and a pioneer for institutional opening-up in China.

Of the 302 FTZ institutional innovations replicated and promoted at the national level, nearly half were pioneered or piloted in Shanghai.

In 1990, the Waigaoqiao area in Shanghai became the country's first bonded zone. Although this zone played a crucial role in China's opening up, the competition posed by other free trade parks and ports in other nations led the Chinese government to set up the Shanghai FTZ, a zone that could promote bold institutional innovations. 

As China's first free trade zone, the Shanghai FTZ serves as an effective test field for deepening reform and a pioneer for institutional opening-up in China.  [Photo/WeChat account: zhangjiangfabu]