The Free Trade Zone Alliance of the Yangtze River Delta Region, which
was formed in Shanghai on Monday, will facilitate high-quality and
integrated development of the region, said officials. The alliance has been jointly set up by FTZs in Shanghai, Zhejiang,
Jiangsu and Anhui, while the secretariat is located in Shanghai. The
purpose of forming the alliance is to further facilitate trade,
investment, financial innovation, technology trade, cross-border
research and development, integrated technology innovation, intellectual
property rights services, exhibitions, systematic innovation and
intellectual support among the FTZs in the four places. FTZ policies have been experimented in 11 cities in the Yangtze River
Delta region. The Shanghai FTZ, which was launched in September 2013,
is the first of its kind in China. It has undergone two major expansions
over the past few years. The Zhejiang FTZ, which was officially
launched in April 2017, expanded for the first time in September. The
Jiangsu FTZ was established in early August 2019 while the youngest the
Anhui FTZ was unveiled last September. Weng Zuliang, director of the Shanghai FTZ's administrative
committee, said the alliance will inject more vitality into the FTZs in
the four places, providing new opportunities for the high-quality
integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region. The alliance will strive to give full play to the strength of the
FTZs in the region, said Weng. A higher level of systematic innovation
should be advanced in the first place so that better overall planning
can be made. Innovation results reached in different FTZs should be
better connected so that the goal of high-quality development can be
better attained, he said. Zhao Jianjun, head of the Department of Commerce of Jiangsu Province,
said the Jiangsu FTZ will look to experiment with more opening-up
policies and give full play to the area's real economy. The biomedicine
industry in the FTZ obtained support from the Ministry of Commerce last
year to experiment with more development models. The industrial
development and systematic innovations reached in the Jiangsu FTZ can
pave the way for the development of the biomedicine industry in the
whole region, said Zhao. Sheng Qiuping, head of Zhejiang's commerce department, said the
alliance will provide a window for Zhejiang and Shanghai FTZs to jointly
build a bonded product registration platform at a faster pace. The
Zhejiang Mercantile Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange will also
be able to work more closely with the help of the alliance. The Anhui FTZ has come up with 112 detailed targets under the
establishment of the alliance. As Zhang Jian, head of Anhui's commerce
department, said, the alliance will feature the connection of
industries, markets, trade, investment, business management and talents
among the four FTZs so that more innovation results will be nurtured.
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