National Free Trade Zone Ranking List

List of national free trade zones: Guangdong Qianhai, Shanghai (Pudong) and Guangdong Nansha rank in the top three, while Shanghai (Lingang), Tianjin, Beijing, Xiamen, Fujian, Chengdu, Sichuan, Wuhan, Hubei and Chongqing rank in the top ten.

On July 20th, 2023, the "China Pilot Free Trade Zone System Innovation Index for 2022-2023" released by the Free Trade Zone Comprehensive Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen University showed that the average score of the system innovation index of 54 free trade zones in China was 78.03, which was significantly higher than the average score of 76.70 in the previous index.

In terms of ranking, Guangdong Qianhai, Shanghai (Pudong) and Guangdong Nansha ranked in the top three, while Shanghai (Lingang), Tianjin, Beijing, Xiamen, Fujian, Chengdu, Sichuan, Wuhan, Hubei and Chongqing entered the top ten.

Compared with the last index, the potential of Beijing and Tianjin is gradually emerging, and there is a tendency to catch up. Central areas such as Nanjing, Jiangsu, Ningbo, Zhejiang, Hefei, Hunan and Changsha, as well as characteristic areas such as Xiong 'an in Hebei, Qinzhou Port in Guangxi and Honghe in Yunnan, have their own characteristics.

Judging from the scores of the provincial index of institutional innovation in the Pilot Free Trade Zone, Shanghai ranks first, while the indexes of Guangdong, Tianjin, Beijing, Chongqing, Sichuan, Fujian, Hainan, Hubei and Shaanxi score more than the average of 80 points. Compared with the last index ranking, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone rose from the second place to the first place, and the overall innovation and development trend was in a leading position.

Generally speaking, the Pilot Free Trade Zone has entered a stage of high-quality development, and various regions have gradually established a new orientation of institutional innovation, that is, pursuing "reasonable growth in quantity and effective improvement in quality". For example, Beijing and Tianjin entered the top ten in the last index ranking, but this index ranking has made progress and the upward trend is obvious.

Causes of Free Trade Zone

1. Compared with the multilateral trading system, it is easier for countries in the region to reach an agreement on a free trade zone and produce practical results. At the same time, most of the existing free trade zones are fruitful, which has also inspired more countries to participate in free trade zones.

2. As far as regional or neighboring countries are concerned, free trade zones are conducive to further exerting the geographical advantages of economic and trade cooperation. Free trade zones between neighboring countries have many advantages, such as convenient personnel exchanges and logistics, similar language and culture, similar living habits and so on.

Therefore, neighboring countries and regions have more favorable conditions to expand and deepen economic cooperation to achieve mutual benefit and win-win, which is more obvious than the benefits brought by participating in the multilateral trading system.

3. While joining the multilateral cooperation mechanism, the conclusion of the free trade zone is conducive to promoting the economic structural reform of each member country, so that more external forces can be used to promote domestic reform.

4. The lessons of many regional economic crises in 1990s also prompted countries all over the world to pay more attention to the institutionalization of regional economic cooperation. Therefore, strengthening regional economic and trade cooperation will not only help prevent new crises, but also contribute to the stable development of the world economy.

Reference to the above contents: China Securities Network-The release of the institutional innovation index of China Pilot Free Trade Zone in 2022-2023 has been significantly improved compared with the previous period.