Chongqing ready to construct first Free Trade Zone

China's southwestern economic powerhouse, Chongqing, is aiming to build the western China's first inland free trade zone, according to a senior municipal official speaking on Thursday.

"The substance of constructing a free trade zone is to construct an international standard investment environment and administrative system environment to provide more convenience to investment and commerce," according to Tang Zongwei, deputy secretary of the Liangjiang New Area Party committee, at the national "two sessions" in Beijing.

According to officials, Liangjiang will deepen its reforms to better serve its investors. For instance, Liangjiang has simplified the foreign investment approval process to attract more investments from different countries.

Liangjiang's foreign investments have covered a variety of industries including cloud computing, equipment manufacturing, logistics and finance.

In March, a diversified trade pilot project was carried out in Liangjiang's Cuntan port. Bonded processing also developed rapidly in Liangjiang, as did bonded logistics, offshore settlement and cross-border e-commerce.

Chongqing utilized foreign capital investment of 10.60 billion yuan in 2014. Liangjiang's import and export growth has amounted to almost 70 percent for four years, thanks to Liangjiang's investment and trade environment.

Edited by Jacob Hooson