Shanghai will deepen financial reforms and regulatory transparency in the free trade zone as the authorities work to make it one of the most liberated FTZs in China.
The city's financial authorities have submitted new rules for approval from the State Council, Shanghai Financial Services Office said. The new set of rules will include nearly 50 items prioritizing capital account convertibility and facilitating cross-border trade and investment.
The capital account convertibility attempts will be progressed from local currencies to foreign currencies, from long-term deals to short-term deals, and from bond market to stock market, the office's Deputy Director Li Jun said, without giving details.
Authorities also hope to further reform the financial services industry for foreign players and encourage the establishment of more international exchanges in the FTZ, Li said.
Gu Honghui, deputy director of Shanghai Development and Reform Commission, said the commission was working with state authorities to draw tax policies for offshore business operations and investment from the FTZ.
The authorities must decide on a plan that is both appealing to market players and compliant with unified national market standard.
Officials have also outlined plans to further shorten a negative list that will allow free entrance of foreign companies, share government information more freely to the public, and reduce government interference in the market.
Shanghai is competing with new FTZs in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian in attracting foreign trade and investment.
Sun Jiwei, deputy director of Shanghai FTZ management committee, said last week that Shanghai aims to build China's most liberated FTZ that can be at the vanguard of reforms and opening-up with the latest concepts and a more open environment.
Latest official data showed that by the end of June, companies in the Shanghai FTZ have set up nearly 20,000 free trade accounts with 28 banks and finance management companies with total transaction reaching 635.75 billion yuan ($102 billion).
