Shanghai to speed up FTZ reforms: mayor

The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) will carry out a series of new reforms to further facilitate trade and shorten its negative list next year, said Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong on Sunday.

The Shanghai FTZ will continue to open up its service industry with new measures and build a unified administration system for intellectual property rights protection, said Yang at a conference attended by international entrepreneurs.

The mayor pledged that the FTZ will gradually implement institutional and regulatory framework to accelerate the convertibility of the Renminbi under the capital account.

The FTZ has already established a basic foundation to ensure its operation within the rule of law.

The Shanghai FTZ was launched in September 2013 to test a broad range of economic reforms. From October 2013 to September this year, the FTZ's exports hit 196.5 billion yuan (about 32 billion U.S. dollars) and imports 551 billion yuan.