FTZ policies to be upgraded to laws in June

Policies operating in Shanghai's pilot free trade zone will be upgraded to laws as early as the middle of 2014, city officials said yesterday.

To bring the FTZ to the next level, the city will discuss details of the zone policies and upgrade them to laws as early as in June, said Yin Yicui, head of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai People's Congress, the city's lawmaking body.

"The legislation for FTZ will influence China's economic reform and influence the whole country's economic transformation over the long term," Yin said during a meeting to discuss the proposed legislation.

Leaders of local regulators, including the reform and development commission, the finance office, and the industry and commerce administration, also attended the meeting.

The law is scheduled to be ready for discussion during SPC's annual session at the beginning of next year. It will be officially published later next year, according to Liu Hua, the city government's law office's director.

The regulators will cooperate with industry associations and third-party firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers to establish a credit and service platform, which features high-technology tools like big data to assist regulation.

"With the new platform, enterprises will find it easy to register, invest and operate in the FTZ. But they also face a high cost for breaking policies or laws," said Wu Zhengguo, director of the Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce.

More than 1,400 companies have registered in the 28-square-kilometer FTZ in the Pudong New Area since its opening on September 29. They included 38 overseas enterprises with a combined investment of US$560 million, Dai Haibo, deputy director of the zone's administrative committee, said yesterday.

"We have seen a surging demand in investment and development in FTZ with the figures beyond our expectations, thanks to favorable policies," Dai said.