Local authorities in China eye demonstration zones for wide opening-up

BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Local authorities in China have recently focused on construction of the demonstration zones for economic and trade cooperation to promote wide opening-up to the outside world, the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily reported on Thursday.

Recently, Ningbo, Liaoning, Qingdao and other provinces and cities in China have officially announced to establish the demonstration zones for economic and trade cooperation, aiming at building new platforms and new engines for opening up to the outside world.

Experts said that in the next step, more provinces and cities will increase regional economic cooperation based on their own industrial advantages and geographical location, and help promote the country's opening-up.

At the Third Ministerial Conference of China and Central and Eastern European Countries on Promoting Economic and Trade Cooperation in early June, the “16+1” economic and trade cooperation demonstration zone was formally launched in Ningbo, east China’s Zhejiang Province.

In April this year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) officially approved to build a demonstration area in Qingdao for China-SCO local economic and trade cooperation.

Northeast China's Liaoning Province is also building a "16+1" demonstration zone for economic and trade cooperation and actively promoting implementation of the numerous open platforms and cooperation mechanisms for the cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

The recently-established demonstration zones for economic and trade cooperation are all in the coastal areas, which allows them to give full play to the advantages of transportation. Meanwhile, the localities adapt to local conditions and give play to regional advantages. For example, Liaoning has advantages in the traditional manufacturing industry. Ningbo makes full use of its role as an international shipping center, said Liu Ying, a researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)