HARBIN — China's northernmost pilot free trade zone (FTZ), located in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, had seen 4,200 enterprises established by July this year, according to the provincial department of commerce.

The commerce department said that as of July, a total of 148 projects, with an investment of 183.86 billion yuan ($26.95 billion), had been signed in the FTZ.

The Heilongjiang pilot FTZ has three sub-areas, with one in the provincial capital of Harbin and the other two located in the cities of Heihe and Suifenhe on the China-Russia border.

Aug 30 marked the anniversary of the inauguration of the Heilongjiang pilot FTZ. Since it began operations, the FTZ has taken a series of measures to attract enterprises, including promoting online services to attract companies to register, improving its business environment, and cutting costs for foreign trade enterprises.

The Heihe sub-area has this year imported 390 million yuan of electricity from Russia, and the border trade volume in the Suifenhe sub-area has hit 308 million yuan with about 91,200 border residents participating.

Six new pilot FTZs in Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Hebei, Yunnan and Heilongjiang were established in August last year, bringing the total number of pilot FTZs in the country to 18 since China began piloting FTZs in Shanghai in 2013.