SHANGHAI — The new Lingang area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was officially launched on Aug 20.

The new section will match the standard of the most competitive free trade zones worldwide and will facilitate overseas investment and capital flows and realize the free flow of goods, according to the area's development plan.

The area will be built into a special economic function zone with global influence and competitiveness.

At the opening ceremony, Shanghai Lingang New Area Economic Development Co Ltd, wholly owned by the Lingang Group, obtained a business licence, the first for the newly launched area.

The company, with an initial registered capital of 2 billion yuan ($283 million), will be responsible for a host of tasks in the core district of the modern service open zone in the Lingang area, including the development and construction, industrial introduction, functional innovation and investment attraction.

Zhu Zhisong, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government and executive deputy director of the Lingang area administrative committee, said the Lingang area would be built into a new engine for China's reform and opening-up.

It aims at opening to the outside world at the highest level, creating experimental reform and opening-up fields best suited to innovation and breakthroughs, and building a free and open economic system, he said.