(Yicai Global) June 9 -- As China's first pilot free trade zone, the Shanghai FTZ has established a blueprint for China's high-level opening-up, according to the city's former vice mayor.

The Shanghai FTZ has a complete set of institutional systems to promote opening-up, Tu Guangshao, now chairman of the Shanghai Finance Institute, said at the 14th Lujiazui Forum yesterday. It has formed a set of experiences and practices that can be replicated and promoted in other places, he said.

A testing ground for economic and social reforms, the FTZ was officially launched in September 2013 a month after the State Council, China’s cabinet, approved its establishment.

“When Shanghai began the construction of the FTZ, everyone wondered if it was necessary to give the FTZ special and preferential policies, but later it turned out that the key was the system, not the policy,” Tu noted.

The FTZ also has established a set of free trade accounts and canceled the pre-approval of overseas financing, which play important roles in overseas financing and cross-border fund flows, he added.

Moreover, Shanghai's securities brokers and stock exchange set up trading platforms for international investors in the FTZ, which have further promoted the internationalization of the city's financial market, attracting many financial institutions, especially from overseas, Tu said.

“On one hand, these achievements led to Shanghai's financial opening-up,” he pointed out. “On the other, they provided better services for the real economy in the FTZ.”

Tu was Shanghai’s vice mayor from 2007 to 2013 and executive vice mayor from 2013 to June 2016. Between June 2016 and April 2019, he was general manager of sovereign wealth fund China Investment.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione