Shanghai FTA to work on its negative list

Since the opening of the China (Shanghai) Pilot FTZ, its service center has been busy with people eager to register companies. Photo taken on Sept 29, 2013. [Photo / icpress.cn]

The new version of the negative list in 2014 for the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone has room for improvement on the 2013 version, said Ai Baojun, director of the zone administration commission, in a news briefing on Thursday in Shanghai.

The commission is seeking advice from relevant industrial associations and main market players to streamline the current 190 administration measures according to Ai.

Eight foreign enterprises have so far won approval from his commission in 190 fields with restrictions according to the negative list.

According to Ai, his commission had dealt with more than 580,000 cases involving consulting and registrations from Sept 29 to Nov 22. Of these cases, some of which may have been dealt with more than once, 6,000 were enterprises.

In 35 working days, the zone saw 1,434 enterprises registered, including 38 new firms established by foreign funds.

The registered capital of foreign enterprises exceeded $560 million and the registered capital of domestic enterprises is more than 34.7 billion yuan ($5.6 billion).

Sixty-nine percent are trade enterprises, and 26 percent are in the service sectors.

The enterprise with the largest registered capital, 5 billion yuan, is the Shanghai Energy Exchange Center and the smallest registered capital for an enterprise is 30,000 yuan.

The zone is also very popular among financial agencies and service sector projects.

There have been 40 financial agencies, covering banking, securities, futures, insurance, foundation and equity transactions, established in the zone. Nine major Chinese banks and 11 foreign banks have set up branches in the zone.