New free trade zones are established in the seven provinces and cities including Sichuan. Together with the early established four free trade zones, the number of national free trade zones has totaled 11.

　　There are two different views regarding the expansion of free trade zones. One view denotes that the expansion of free trade zones will reduce their qualities; another holds that the blooming expansion of free trade zones will generate a cluster effect in free trade zones, which in return will increase their qualities.

　　Mr. Zhu Min, Vice Director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, and former Vice Director of the Management Committee for Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, said that free trade zones represent experimental reforms, rather than zones for development. He thought that the thinking mode featuring “more free trade zones will decrease their development qualities" is the old mindset for development zones. While in the future, with more free trade zones, the system and transaction costs among each zone can be reduced greatly, thereby enhancing their development efficiency. Establishing free trade zones is to create a nursery instead of a bonsai. The bigger the nursery, the better the ecology will be. Complementary and comparative experiments can be drawn from the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone to contribute to the establishment of new free trade zones which are to feature differentiated modes according to their distinct local characteristics, thus exploring the way forward for larger-scale reform and opening up.

　　Their qualities will not decline, but competitions among free trade zones will become fiercer. How to avoid homogenization and blaze a unique road? Mr. Liu Xin, Director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce, believes that given Sichuan’s location, not near the sea or along the border, thus the construction of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone must take a different path. For example, in terms of channel construction, we should highlight the role of aviation and international railway hubs; in terms of the directions for opening-up, we should emphasis more the southward and westward opening-up; in terms of industrial development, we should develop service trade which boasts a late-comer advantage. Sichuan will carry out more reforms to highlight the advantages of opening-up and development through institutional dividends.