FTZs to propel regional growth

Free trade zones in China's central and western regions do not have a physical port, but they still have major potential to build up their free trade ports and thereby facilitate wider regional growth, government think tanks said on Tuesday.

Their comments came after the Ministry of Commerce's move to coordinate with the Shanghai municipal government and related administrations to plan the establishment of a free port within the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was announced last week.

Bai Ming, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said there were small disparities among ports, industrial parks and zones in the past, as they were all trade frontiers to the world.