China’s pilot free trade zones have drawn 4,639 foreign-funded enterprises in the first nine months of this year as they were attracted by liberal policies in trade and investment, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday.

The foreign companies brought in an aggregated 346.1 billion yuan (US$54.6 billion) of investments during the period, data showed.

Of the newly established foreign companies, 90 percent invested in areas beyond the off-limit sectors specified by the country’s negative list and entered the zones through a registration-based system, which provides easier administrative procedures than the previous approval system, the ministry said.

“Free trade zones have been playing a leading role in stabilizing growth and promoting restructuring,” ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told a press conference yesterday.

“Obvious progress has been made in trade and investment facilitation, financial innovation and reform of government management method.”

The number of foreign companies in Shanghai’s FTZ rose 52.6 percent year on year while those in the Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian zones more than tripled since they were launched in April.

At the end of September, the number of newly formed companies more than doubled from the same month of last year to 45,000 in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian zones. Most are in financial leasing, e-commerce and modern logistics, according to the ministry.