This book introduces the new China (Shanghai) Free-Trade Zone one year after its launch. It examines in depth the economic, strategic and political effects of Chinese economic and financial reform. The results of the analysis are further clarified by comparing Shanghai with analogous counterparts in Singapore and Hong Kong. China has developed a number of special and free-trade zones but the new Pilot Shanghai FTZ includes all previous privileges promoting the area as perfect hub for the Asia-Pacific region. This work represents a valuable business guide for appraising new opportunities in the most promising sectors for business enterprises in China.

"This book provides a detailed study of practices of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (Shanghai FTZ henceforth). It aims to answer questions related to establishing the Shanghai FTZ and improving its practices, such as the future of world's macro-economy, the Shanghai FTZ's position in Chinese and world economy, government transition and international trade upgrading, as well as financial sector opening up strategies and innovations. By answering these questions, implications for possible future policy developments are provided. Though the operation of Shanghai FTZ is the main focus, this book delves deeper into the question of how China will further reform its financial system in the future. Similar to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which heralded China's economic transformation in the 1980s and 1990s, the Shanghai FTZ may well be such a pioneer project, pointing to the future economic path that China might tread. Written by the foremost Chinese economists -- with some involved in the setup process of the Shanghai FTZ, this book is a must read for anyone who is interested in the prospects of the Shanghai FTZ and the future direction of the Chinese economic development."--Provided by publisher

The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) has been active for a year. As a national strategy, the free trade zone is a highlighted stage of reform. Over the past year, the FTZ builders' endeavors have come down to the following four aspects: the establishment of a negative-list system, which is aimed for the innovation of the investment management system; the increase of trade facilitation and institutional innovation in regulatory services; the exploration on the reform of financial innovation system in the zone; and the basic formation of the in-process and post-mortem supervisory system based on transferred government functions. The experiences and lessons that the FTZ has undergone during this exploration process will be of great value for other similiar Chinese free trade experiments. The FTZ will surely lead China to a "great future."

This book examines China's economic development since 1949, with special emphasis on the economic transition of the past two decades and the role of special economic zones in this gradually evolving process. Various issues concerning the formation of the zones are explored. The performance of the zones and their impacts on the Chinese economy and the transitional path are assessed in aspects such as economic growth, structural changes, investment financing, employment and wages, technology transfers and learning, productivity gains, standards of living, trade expansion and the changing pattern of foreign investment. The implications of the special economic zones as a policy instrument to facilitate the process of economic transition and development, as well as the relevant policy issues, are examined.

This book discusses the latest developments in the China Pilot Free- Trade Zone strategy. It puts forward and explains the idea that building the Shanghai Pilot Free-Trade Zone (SFTZ) is a national test, as it is a major strategic decision to help China cope with the new situation resulting from opening-up and the further implementation of the reform. Based on China’s strategic demand in the era of globalization, this book takes into account the global structure of trade, investment and changes in standards, and studies the system of SFTZ. Moreover, based on the national strategy of building international-caliber free-trade zone, it compares the SFTZ with other established free-trade zones and free-port cities. It reveals the overall SFTZ framework and explains in detail aspects of the financial system, investment management, trade supervision, taxation, offshore trade and finance, government system reform, plus the linkage mechanism of building Shanghai as an international economy, finance, trade and shipping center.

The terrain of the world trading system is shifting as countries in Asia, Europe, and North America negotiate new trade agreements. However, none of these talks include both China and the United States, the two biggest economies in the world. In this pathbreaking study, C. Fred Bergsten, Gary Clyde Hufbauer, and Sean Miner argue that China and the United States would benefit substantially from a bilateral free trade and investment accord. In the process, they contend, each country would also achieve progress in addressing its internal economic challenges, such as the low saving rate in the United States. Achieving greater trade and investment integration could be accomplished with one comprehensive effort or through step-by-step negotiations over key issues. The authors call on the United States to seek liberalization of China's services sector as vital to securing an agreement, and they explain that such contentious matters as cyber espionage and currency manipulation be handled through parallel negotiations rather than in the agreement itself. This is an important study of the benefits and difficulties of a complex matter that could yield dividends to the two economies and help stabilize the security and well-being of the rest of the world.

The establishment of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone immediately hit international and domestic headlines. On face value, the free trade zone is a variation to the long-established special economic zones set up by the Chinese government more than three decades ago in order to attract foreign direct investment and promote economic development in China. In substance, the free trade zone is used by China's new leadership as a more ambitious testing ground for more liberal economic reforms, especially in the financial industry. This article looks not only into these deepening economic reforms but also into the inherent political difficulties and significance of implementing these plans from a law and development perspective.

China's increasing openness to foreign direct investment (FDI) has contributed importantly to its exceptional growth performance. This paper examines China's experience with FDI and identifies some lessons for other countries. Most of the factors explaining China's success have also been important in attracting FDI to other countries: market size, labor costs, quality of infrastructure, and government policies. FDI has contributed to higher investment and productivity growth, and has created jobs and a dynamic export sector. China's success, however, did not come without some pitfalls: an increasingly complex tax incentive system and growing regional income disparities. Accession to the WTO should broaden China's "opening up" policies and continue FDI's contributions to China's economy in the future.

An in-depth examination of the special economic zones that have been established in China to further the economic development of that country.

The SDR has enjoyed renewed attention lately in the context of debates on international monetary reform. To be sure, the term SDR has been used to refer to three different concepts—(i) a composite reserve asset created in 1969: the “official SDR” as defined in the Fund’s Articles; (ii) a potential new class of reserve assets: tradable SDRdenominated securities issued by the Fund or an investment vehicle backed by a subset of the Fund’s membership; and (iii) a unit of account, which could be used to price internationally traded assets (e.g., sovereign bonds) and goods (e.g., commodities), to peg currencies, and to report balance of payments data. All three are discussed in this paper.