Sheng Qiuping, the head of the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province, detailed the achievements of the China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) during an interview on Jan 12.

According to Sheng, Zhejiang FTZ carried out 89 pilot projects and accomplished 116 institutional innovation achievements in total in 2019.

Last year, a total of 2,917 oil and natural gas enterprises were registered in the zone and the annual value of trade for oil products amounted to 324 billion yuan ($47 billion).

Zhejiang FTZ, located in the city of Zhoushan, was officially launched in April 2017. It is a national free-trade zone focusing on commodity investment facilitation and trade liberalization, with the oil industrial chain as its core.

"This April, Zhejiang FTZ will welcome its third anniversary. In this year, the zone should complete all its pilot tasks, promote the expansion of its scale, and build interconnected innovation areas," said Sheng Qiuping.

In late 2019, Zhejiang FTZ was approved by the People's Government of Zhejiang Province to build interconnected innovation areas in six cities in the province – Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Jiaxing, Jinhua and Taizhou.

The construction of the six areas was officially launched during a provincial-level conference for commerce on Jan 7, 2020.