en.Wedoany.com Reported - On April 1st, the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone officially celebrated its 9th anniversary. Nine years ago, when the red silk covering the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone was gently unveiled, a profound transformation on how an inland province could embrace the world quietly commenced on the land of Tianfu.
Through nine years of unremitting cultivation, this "experimental field" carrying the nation's mission of opening up has sown the seeds of institutional innovation in the inland hinterland. From the comprehensive implementation of 159 reform pilot tasks to the successive blossoming of over 900 institutional innovation achievements; from 15 experiences being replicated and promoted nationwide to over 360,000 enterprises thriving on this fertile land... the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone has fulfilled its mission with practical action and solved problems with innovation, writing a brilliant answer sheet of transforming from an "experimental field" to a "high-yield field".
Reform and Tackling Hard Problems: Building a Robust Open Institutional System
Nine years is enough for a seed to grow strong, but for the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, it has been a journey of creation and optimization from scratch.
Data bears witness to the results. Since its establishment, the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone has cumulatively formed over 900 institutional innovation achievements. Among them, 15 have been replicated and promoted nationwide by the State Council and the Ministry of Commerce, 157 have been replicated and promoted within the province, and 66 have been promoted in relevant fields by relevant State Council mechanisms and multiple ministries and commissions, placing it in the first tier among the third batch of pilot free trade zones.
"As a leading project to promote Sichuan's open development, the construction of the pilot free trade zone has always adhered to institutional innovation as the core and replicability and scalability as the basic requirements, focusing on exploring and forming a batch of institutional innovation achievements with Sichuan characteristics and national influence," said a relevant person in charge of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce.
The multiplier effect of institutional innovation continues to be released in the development of the export-oriented economy. Over the past nine years, the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone has cumulatively established over 360,000 new enterprises, with a total foreign trade import and export volume exceeding 860 billion yuan, an average annual growth of 14.8%. Its share of the province's total foreign trade has remained stable at over 13%, more than 2.5 percentage points higher than at the time of establishment, attracting $5.674 billion in foreign direct investment. This land, accounting for only 1/4000 of the province's area, contributes nearly 1/4 of Sichuan's foreign direct investment, 1/10 of its imports and exports, and 1/10 of its newly established enterprises, becoming a "ballast stone" for stabilizing Sichuan's foreign trade and foreign investment.
From "pioneering experimentation" to "demonstration and leadership", behind the sets of data lie the solid footprints of an inland province striving for maritime strength and open development.
Zhang Jianping, Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, stated that pilot free trade zones bear the task of expanding independent opening-up and promoting institutional opening-up. "Judging from the series of achievements made by the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, especially the 15 experiences replicated and promoted nationwide, it has made significant progress in all aspects, such as tax and fee reform, financial services, and financial innovation, playing an important supporting role in expanding economic and trade cooperation between China and Southeast Asia as well as Eurasia."
Indeed, as Sichuan steadily expands institutional opening-up in rules, regulations, management, and standards, the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone has undergone comprehensive upgrades in foreign trade, investment freedom and facilitation, technological innovation, industrial systems, data flow, open channels, financial innovation, talent attraction and cultivation, and risk prevention and control, forging a path of open development with inland characteristics.
In 2024, Sichuan proposed in the "Implementation Plan for the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone's Benchmarking and Navigation Action" to strive to build the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone into a pioneering demonstration zone leading Sichuan's high-level opening-up and high-quality development. Now, as the new journey of the "15th Five-Year Plan" fully sets sail, free trade reform has entered deep waters. To continue cultivating this "high-yield field", Sichuan is poised to plough with even greater institutional innovation.
At the beginning of this year, Sichuan held a provincial commerce work conference, clarifying that the new year's free trade construction should focus on enhancing reform and tackling-hard-problem capabilities, concentrating on institutional integrated innovation in areas such as digital creativity, nuclear medicine, and aviation manufacturing applications, actively seeking national pilot authorizations, pragmatically promoting the implementation of the "Regulations on Promoting and Regulating Cross-border Data Flow", and carrying out pilot projects for cross-border data flow security management.
According to a relevant person in charge of the Free Trade Office of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce, Sichuan has studied and formulated the "Implementation Plan for Sichuan Province to Implement the Free Trade Zone Enhancement Strategy", which will serve as a programmatic document guiding free trade zone enhancement and development in the coming years, directing various zones to strive for more "first-order" breakthroughs in areas such as the negative list for foreign investment, the negative list for cross-border trade in services, and the negative list for cross-border data flow.
Institutional Breakthrough: Exploring High-Standard Economic and Trade Rules
Testing systems for the nation and seeking development for the locality. The "Free Trade Zone Enhancement Strategy" was explicitly written into the "15th Five-Year Plan" outline, pointing the direction for deepening reform and expanding opening-up in the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone.
Benchmarking against high-standard economic and trade rules, the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone has achieved repeated institutional breakthroughs, deepening pioneering, integrated, and differentiated exploration, effectively eliminating institutional drawbacks that constrain the vitality of business entities.
In recent years, multiple reform achievements of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, such as the "'Arrival and Immediate Entry' Mode for Goods Entering the First Line of Comprehensive Bonded Zones", have been selected as national typical cases; cases such as the facilitation of customs clearance for food and medicine with the same origin, out-of-zone Airbus bonded maintenance, import of used aircraft auxiliary power units (APUs), and trial rail transport of power lithium batteries have been implemented and yielded results; the "Customs-Territory Coordination" supervision "white list" system has reduced the import licensing time for special biomedical items from 100 days to 20 days, significantly improving customs clearance efficiency.
"The 'Customs-Territory Coordination' supervision and 'white list' system have significantly improved the import and export timeliness of core projects such as Kelun-Bota's Lukan Satuzumab, seizing critical time for global multi-center clinical trials," said a person in charge of Sichuan Kelun-Bota Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
The time "seized" is particularly precious. In October 2025, Wenjiang District and the Chengdu Economic and Technological Development Zone Free Trade Pilot Zone successively implemented the reform for facilitating customs clearance of imported goods with food and medicine sharing the same origin, reducing clearance time to 96 hours. Sichuan's overall import and export customs clearance times were compressed by 63.4% and 85.2% respectively compared to the initial period after establishment.
A series of practical cases confirm that the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone is transforming rules and systems into tangible competitive advantages. For inland provinces, promoting institutional opening-up is a key variable for winning future development.
"Over the past nine years, the achievements of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone in institutional innovation are both solid and exemplary. The core lies in its consistent precision in对接 (meeting) open development needs and eliminating pain points for enterprise development," said Fu Yifu, a special researcher at Sunong Bank. Focusing on key areas such as customs clearance facilitation and supervision model optimization, Sichuan has broken traditional institutional barriers, simplified procedures, and improved service efficiency, both reducing burdens for enterprise development and fully demonstrating the core value of pilot free trade zones in "taking the lead in experimentation and bold exploration."
During the exploration process, Sichuan, addressing issues such as cumbersome multi-modal transport bill of lading exchange procedures and inability to share data, continuously deepened the reform of the "single bill of lading" system for multi-modal transport. Relevant experience was adopted by the United Nations into the "Convention on Transferable Goods Documents". To address difficulties such as lengthy and slow handling of commercial disputes, Sichuan accelerated the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal Services District's Enterprise Service Center, Bankruptcy Affairs Center, Financial Mediation Center, Legal Technology Center, and Foreign-related Legal Services Center, providing comprehensive protection for enterprise rights and interests.
"To build a higher-level pilot free trade zone, Sichuan will further replicate and promote high-level institutional opening-up measures," said a relevant person in charge of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce. By benchmarking international high-standard economic and trade rules, coordinating the implementation of national pilot experiences, organically integrating the State Council's 33 measures on promoting institutional opening-up pilots with the 77 experiences of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, and formulating replication and promotion plans, Sichuan will ensure that national reform dividends are effectively implemented in the province.
Building Pillars and Beams: Constructing an Open Hub Linking the Globe
In the early morning, the whistle of the Chengdu International Railway Port pierces the sky as China-Europe freight trains满载 (loaded with) hope head into the distance; at night, the container handling area of Luzhou Port is brightly lit, with busy figures outlining a vibrant scene of connectivity to rivers and seas; in the clouds, cargo plane engines roar at Shuangliu International Airport,架起 (erecting) an "air bridge" connecting the world... Adjacent to railways, waterways, and air routes, three major open arteries interweave and联动 (interact), weaving a three-dimensional transportation network linking Sichuan to the globe.
Over the past nine years, the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone has continuously densified its international logistics network, achieving a transformation from "inland hinterland" to "open frontier". Since the unified branding of the China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing), it has connected over 160 cities domestically and internationally; in 2025, the Luzhou Southern Sichuan Port Area handled 258,000 TEUs of container运输 (transport), a year-on-year increase of 10.5%; Chengdu Shuangliu Airport新开 (newly opened) 7 international cargo routes, with cargo routes covering major node cities in Europe, America, and Asia, driving Shuangliu Airport to achieve a cargo and mail throughput exceeding 730,000 tons in 2025, a record high.
"The three-dimensional transportation network is the core for the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone to achieve the leap from 'inland hinterland' to 'open frontier', playing a comprehensive and foundational role in promoting its high-quality development," said Fu Yifu. Relying on channel construction, Sichuan promotes deep联动 (linkage) between the pilot free trade zone and domestic and international markets, not only broadening channels for local enterprises to "go global" but also creating favorable conditions for foreign enterprises to "enter",助力 (assisting) industrial agglomeration and business model innovation.
The stories of various ports in Sichuan vividly诠释 (interpret) how Sichuan, "without a coastline or bordering other countries", has blazed a new open path to rivers and seas by densifying this transportation network.
The Southern Sichuan Port Area is adjacent to the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, and its得天独厚 (unique) geographical advantage attracts business "knocking on its door". In May 2025, a重轮 (heavy vessel) carrying 23 containers and nearly 500 tons of Australian barley berthed at Luzhou Port for operations, completing customs clearance and distribution within 48 hours; in August, a batch of imported chicken feet from Belarus arrived in Luzhou,依托 (relying on) the designated supervision site for imported meat,首次 (for the first time)落地 (landed) TIR international road transport cold chain business in Luzhou.
"In the past year, new routes such as the 'Ningbo-Luzhou' sea-river intermodal container liner route and the 'Luzhou-Yibin' container water-water transshipment route were added here, with an annual water-water transshipment volume of about 35,000 TEUs," said a relevant person in charge of the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone Southern Sichuan Port Area. For a long time, Luzhou shipping has maintained stable operation, with 9 domestic精品 (high-quality) routes covering key node cities along the Yangtze River,辐射 (radiating) to Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Chongqing regions.
On the other side, the "air corridor" is equally busy. During peak flow periods, Shuangliu Airport's peak hourly capacity increased from 34 to 48 movements. By optimizing and densifying the精品快线 (high-quality express) network connecting "Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Lhasa, Urumqi, Nanjing, Hangzhou", Shuangliu Airport completed passenger throughput of 33.52 million人次 (person-times) in 2025, with express route passengers accounting for 55%. Relying on "port + route" resources, Sichuan successfully built a national distribution center for特色进口生鲜 (specialty imported fresh food) such as salmon, allowing "global fresh food" to quickly reach Chinese dining tables.
"Woo..." Another long whistle sounded as an international train满载 (loaded with) "Made in Sichuan" products slowly departed from Chengdu International Railway Port. Empowered by the pilot free trade zone construction, this world-class land port hub achieved an energy level upgrade, constructing international corridors with Chengdu as the main hub, advancing west to Europe, north to Mongolia and Russia, east connecting Japan and South Korea, and south expanding to ASEAN. It has cumulatively operated over 36,000 international train trips, ranking among the top nationwide in total operations, becoming an important gateway for inland regions to link with the globe.
Three silk roads converge in Sichuan, with the "Land Silk Road", "Maritime Silk Road", and "Air Silk Road" interweaving into a network.
Zhang Jianping stated that Sichuan's prominent advantages as a transportation and logistics hub node demonstrate its hub function in supporting trade and investment growth within the Eurasian transportation and logistics network. Fu Yifu believes that the three-dimensional transportation network彻底打破 (completely broke) the geographical constraints of inland regions,打通 (opened up) the logistics arteries connecting Sichuan to the world, allowing goods, capital, talent, and other factors to flow efficiently, significantly enhancing regional trade便利度 (convenience) and core competitiveness.
Building Clusters and Strengthening Chains: Injecting New Momentum into Modern Industrial Development
Strengthening the aviation industry, developing the digital industry, enhancing research and application of cutting-edge medical technologies... Over the past nine years, focusing on the construction of a modern industrial system, the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone has cultivated a batch of globally competitive industrial clusters.
In June 2025, Sichuan's first out-of-zone bonded maintenance business was officially落地 (landed). At that time, a Philippine Royal Air A320 aircraft entered Sichuan for maintenance, marking Sichuan's航空维修 (aviation maintenance) business successfully接入 (connecting to) higher-end global industrial and value chains.
"Driven by the pilot policy for out-of-zone Airbus bonded maintenance, Sichuan's aviation maintenance industry has achieved集聚发展 (clustered development). Over 10 enterprises including Sichuan International, Sichuan Airlines Maintenance, and Ameco have now settled, with 7 hangars built, covering all major segments of the aviation maintenance industry, with an output value exceeding 70 billion yuan," introduced a relevant person in charge of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce.
Promoting industrial "cluster building and chain strengthening", Sichuan's digital creativity industry厚积薄发 (accumulated strength for a breakthrough). "Ne Zha II: The Devil's Child Causing Havoc" became the highest-grossing film in Chinese box office history. "Honor of Kings",经过十年运营 (after ten years of operation), boasts over 100 million daily active users, leading the global mobile gaming market. To optimize the digital industry ecosystem, Sichuan successfully落地 (landed) the nation's first one-stop public service platform for gaming enterprises and established the nation's first comprehensive trusted asset service system for digital creativity. In 2025, Chengdu获批 (was approved for) 221 online game version numbers, a year-on-year increase of 123.23%.
Exploring free trade industrial paths, developing new quality productive forces is an unavoidable课题 (topic).
In recent years, 17 major projects including the China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Sichuan Intelligent Connected Vehicle Technology Innovation Center have相继落户 (settled in Sichuan one after another). Sichuan successfully built the province's first intelligent connected vehicle demonstration line, established a regional cloud platform for intelligent connected vehicle management services built by Tencent, and explored建立 (establishing) an access review mechanism for autonomous vehicles.
Innovatively developing the nuclear medicine industry, Sichuan组建起 (formed) the province's first 10-billion-yuan核医疗主题基金 (nuclear medicine-themed fund). The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University and the China Institute for Radiation Protection jointly built a放射性药物创新研发与临床转化中心 (radio-pharmaceutical innovation R&D and clinical transformation center),打造 (creating) a CRDMO comprehensive service platform, attracting链主企业 (leading chain enterprises) such as nuclear medicine company纽瑞特 (Newrite) and medical equipment company赛诺联合 (Sainuo United) to settle.
"The pilot free trade zone has upgraded the high-end nuclear medicine equipment manufacturing industry chain from localization to internationalization. The industry chain has upgraded from R&D, production, and export to a full chain of 'R&D + manufacturing + overseas maintenance + technical services', with附加值 (added value) significantly提升 (improved)," said Ma Ruili, General Manager of Sichuan Jiuyiyuan Particle Technology Co., Ltd.
Zhang Jianping坦率地说 (frankly stated) that areas such as intelligent connected vehicles, medical devices, and medical services are strategic emerging industries encouraged by the state for key development, and are also important areas where各地 (various regions) are making efforts to advance and continuously enhance competitiveness. Sichuan's rapid progress in these fields provides important industrial支撑 (support) for its open development and high-quality construction.
Sichuan continues to深耕 (deeply cultivate) investment and trade liberalization and facilitation, making investing in Sichuan the choice for more enterprises. In 2025, guided by the "15+N" industrial chains, Sichuan新引进 (newly attracted) 16 foreign-funded projects with合同外资 (contracted foreign capital) exceeding $5 million, carried out "service保障进外企 (assurance into foreign enterprises)" activities, and promoted增资扩股 (capital increase and share expansion) for 30 foreign-funded projects.
"Embarking on the new journey, Sichuan will vigorously implement全产业链创新发展 (whole industrial chain innovation and development). By formulating and issuing integrated differentiated empowerment plans, supporting key industrial fields such as digital creativity, aviation, and nuclear medicine to carry out先行先试 (pioneering trials) and争取授权试点 (seek authorized pilots), and结合 (combining) the characteristics of Sichuan's whole industrial chain innovation, further挖掘 (excavate) reform initiatives with national pioneering significance," said a relevant person in charge of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce.
Coordinated Opening-up: Deepening Regional Collaboration and Linkage Development
Deepening regional coordination and serving higher-level open development, Sichuan, through多方联动 (multi-party linkage), is building a集聚地 (gathering place) for open economic development.
In recent years, the central government赋予 (entrusted) Sichuan with the mission of "implementing a coordinated opening-up strategy between inland areas and coastal, border, and riverine regions". Seizing this opportunity, Sichuan actively integrated into the Chengdu-Chongqing economic圈建设 (circle construction), jointly issued with Chongqing the "Deepening Reform and Innovation Action Plan (2023-2025)" for the Sichuan-Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone Coordinated Opening-up Demonstration Zone, forming 18 cross-regional institutional innovation achievements such as an integrated tax management model, while actively exploring跨区域共享数据 (cross-regional data sharing) and协同业务 (coordinated business) with Guangxi, Yunnan, and other places.
Moving from "single-point breakthroughs" to "全面开花 (blooming everywhere)", Sichuan同步下放 (simultaneously delegated) three batches totaling 146 provincial management authorities to "Pilot Free Trade Zone Areas + Coordinated Pilot Zones". Various zones协同共进 (coordinated and advanced together), forming a良好的发展格局 (sound development pattern).
In 2025, the High-tech Zone block of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone contributed nearly 90% of the new enterprise increment in the Chengdu area. The直管区块 (directly administered block) of Tianfu New Area added over 27.3 billion yuan in registered capital for new enterprises in the first 10 months. The规上工业产值 (output value of industrial enterprises above designated size) of the Shuangliu block is expected to突破 (break through) 160 billion yuan. The Qingbaijiang Railway Port Area achieved显著成效 (significant results) in the construction of specialized single-product trade distribution centers. The import and export value of the Southern Sichuan Port Area accounted for over 50% of Luzhou City's total.
Breaking the physical boundary limitations of the pilot free trade zone, Sichuan pioneered the establishment of Coordinated Reform Pilot Zones nationwide. In 2025, Sichuan's 13 Coordinated Reform Pilot Zones successfully explored and formed 81 institutional innovation achievements, of which 24 were replicated and promoted province-wide.
Mianyang deepened coordinated construction,率先发布 (taking the lead in releasing) 20 measures for the low-altitude economy in the province, promoting the "587+" key industries for cluster building and chain strengthening, and cumulatively forming over 20 institutional innovation achievements replicated and promoted province-wide. Simultaneously, it actively复制推广 (replicated and promoted) over 50 national and Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone reform experiences in跨区域联动 (cross-regional linkage) and the low-altitude economy,构建起 (building) a "national-provincial-municipal"三级联动推广体系 (three-tier linkage promotion system).
Yibin focused on high-quality development,推进 (advancing) the提质增效 (quality improvement and efficiency enhancement) of free trade work. With an area less than 1/1100 of the city's total, it contributed over 60% of the city's foreign trade import and export value. Industries such as power batteries, photovoltaic products, and new energy vehicles developed rapidly, becoming key breakthroughs for industrial upgrading and foreign trade transformation.
A relevant person in charge of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce stated that promoting regional coordinated development is an important measure for Sichuan to deepen free trade reform. In this regard, Sichuan will continue to high-quality advance the coordinated and联动发展 (linkage development) of the Sichuan-Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone,提升 (enhance) the development quality and efficiency of Coordinated Reform Pilot Zones. Through联动开展 (jointly carrying out) a series of链动全球 (global chain linkage) activities, Sichuan will strive to build a new highland for the inland open economy, making greater contributions to serving the national opening-up大局 (overall situation) and promoting Sichuan's high-quality development.
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