Shanghai is set to accelerate financial reforms in its free trade zone even as the city leads in innovating China’s financial sector, participants said at the 2016 Shanghai International Think Tank Summit yesterday.

To meet its goal of becoming the world’s financial center by 2020, Shanghai needs to further cut the negative list piloted in the Shanghai FTZ and offer easier policies for businesses in areas such as visa application, they told the annual event organized by the Development Research Center of Shanghai’s city government.

The city will implement policies to keep up with the fast changing international investment and trade conditions, said Xiao Lin, director-general of the center.

“We will further reform and optimize our management in supervision to help businesses raise efficiency,” Xiao said.

“With financial innovation, we also hope to have a bigger say in the global financial world as Shanghai bids to become an international financial center.”

The Shanghai FTZ aims to become a yuan settlement center to boost the Chinese currency’s internationalization, said Zheng Hai’ao, deputy director of the policy research bureau of the FTZ.

Kenneth Jarrett, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said the city should look to improve its investment exit rules.

Source: Shanghai FTZ Government.cn