The Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone

Few initiatives in the past couple of years have captured the attention of China’s financial services community more than the recently opened Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone. Situated in the eastern part of Shanghai and encompassing 29km2 of land which, like the rest of Pudong, was predominantly farmland as little as ten years ago.

Depending on whom you speak with, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone will either be a bastion of financial industry reform and opening, unseen since the great opening of the late 1970s, where unbridled capitalism reigns free and unhindered, or it will be a mini-Hong Kong, where bankers are saved the long-distance phone charges to Hong Kong, but not much else.

Either way, following the developments of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone is critical for any company in, or closely tied to China’s financial services industry to pay attention to. Citibank and DBS have already made big bets, and others might soon too.

To help companies understand the zone and its potential implications, this Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone report takes a look at what the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone actually is and examines potential scenarios of what it could be in the future. In addition, we look at how the Shanghai FTZ fits with Qianhai Special Economic Zone and Wenzhou, two other zones of policy and economic reform.

This report is free to download, registration required