Ninety percent of the reform projects at the four pilot free trade zones (FTZs) are already under way and 69,177 companies have been launched from January to May 2016, said Shen Danyang, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, at a news conference held by the ministry on August 2, according to People’s Daily.

The four pilot FTZs are located in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian, respectively.

The reform process has been launched in various fields, including investment, trade, finance and administrative supervision. For example, the management of market access for foreign investment has been reformed by using a negative list. The trade supervision system has also been simplified in order to enhance efficiency. The Customs clearance speed of the FTZs has risen 40 percent after the reform.

The reforms have stimulated market and boosted entrepreneurship, which will be expanded to other regions after necessary evaluation, Shen said.

He added the ministry is encouraging enterprises running processing trade in East China to move to the middle and west. “The gradient migration is not coercive, but we will prioritize the shift of outbound industries to the less-developed regions under market forces.”