Chongqing- The cooperative opening-up demonstration zone of the Sichuan-Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone will focus on enlarging the opening of key areas, including finance, technology, digital economy, talent, and medical care, and expanding the opening of ports and airports, according to the press conference held by the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce on March 31.

Fu Jiakang, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce, said that this is the first time China has clearly proposed the coordinated opening of cross-provincial pilot free trade zones. “A rare historical opportunity for the opening-up and development of the Sichuan-Chongqing pilot free trade zone,” said Fu.

In the early stage, Sichuan and Chongqing's main work includes in-depth investigations on the construction of the Sichuan-Chongqing Free Trade Pilot Zone for the cooperative opening demonstration zone. It is understood that the construction of the demonstration zone has been incorporated into the 12 planning schemes jointly prepared by Sichuan and Chongqing and 35 major issues to be promoted.

Meanwhile, multi-level and multi-dimensional cooperation between the two places is advancing in-depth. The Sichuan-Chongqing Commerce Department signed a work plan on matters related to the demonstration zone's construction, formed a list of items, and planned more than 50 cooperation items.

Additionally, The People's Courts of the Pilot Free Trade Zones, among the two places, signed the Judicial Cooperation Agreement on the Sichuan-Chongqing Free Trade Zone. The cooperation agreement signed by the investment, finance, trade, and other special work promotion departments of the pilot free trade zones in the two places also highlights the importance of the cooperative opening of pilot free trade zones.

Through organizing special workgroups, listening to the suggestions of experts from all walks of life and the free trade sector, and fully soliciting the opinions of the leading groups of the two pilot free trade zones, Sichuan and Chongqing are initiating the drafting of the overall plan for the construction of the demonstration zone.

While deepening the openness of factors such as goods, capital, and talents, attracting the accumulation of factors, and fostering new development momentum, Sichuan and Chongqing will steadily advance institutional liberalization such as intellectual property rights and competitive neutrality and promote the formation of domestic and foreign linkages between land and sea, as well as a new pattern of opening to the outside world featuring mutual assistance between the east and the west.