Chinese premier chairs meeting on FTZs, administrative reconsideration regulation

BEIJING, April 17 -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang chaired a State Council executive meeting on Friday, which heard a report on the development of pilot free trade zones (FTZs) and approved a revised regulation on the implementation of the Administrative Reconsideration Law.

The meeting noted that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the country's FTZs have achieved breakthroughs in deepening reform, expanding opening up, and promoting development, effectively fulfilling their roles as comprehensive pilot platforms.

It called for implementing an FTZ upgrading strategy, and facilitating FTZs to better serve overall national development, adding that region-specific policies should be adopted to promote high-quality FTZ development.

China supports Shanghai and other FTZs in aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules, and steadily advancing institutional opening up in rules, management and standards, according to the meeting.

On administrative reconsideration, the meeting noted that the newly revised regulation refines relevant legal provisions, and addresses new issues in practice.

The meeting called on all localities and departments to strengthen self-supervision, standardize administrative actions, and continuously enhance the government's governance capacity and credibility.