More than 1,400 firms sign up for Shanghai FTZ

Shanghai’s free trade zone (FTZ) has to date drawn more than 1,400 companies since its launch in September, Financial Times reported. The scenario allows the official in charge of FTZ to claim progress at this crucial testing gound. Expectations jumped ahead of the launch of Shanghai’s free trade zone in late September, but companies were initially disappointed when they found that a long list of sectors were still out of bounds for investment. Ai Baojun, head of the free trade zone’s administrative committee said that said that 1,434 companies had already registered in the zone, with a further 6,000 in the process of applying.