Deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) are pushing to have their jurisdictions included in the country's next batch of free trade zones (FTZs) after three new zones were approved in December.

The desire to win the central government's approval to upgrade existing development areas or set up new FTZs from scratch was quite evident during the annual legislative session, which closed on Sunday.

One motion came from Zhang Qingjun, an NPC deputy and mayor of Hefei, capital of East China's ­Anhui Province, who envisions an FTZ connecting three other adjacent provincial capitals - Wuhan, Nanchang and Changsha - along the Yangzte River.

The rationale behind the proposed FTZ, according to Zhang, is that the four cities face similar development challenges and all aspire to attract more foreign investment.

An inter-provincial FTZ will also help break jurisdictional barriers for China's central provinces, a move that Zhang said would create a unified market where capital and goods can move with fewer restrictions.

East China's Shandong Province also wants to have an FTZ in the coastal city Qingdao, provincial governor Guo Shuqing told Xinhua on the sidelines of the NPC.

The move to set up FTZs is part of China's effort to allow market forces to play a decisive role in the economy through greater opening to foreign investments into industries and removing restrictions over capital flows.

Yet the FTZ immediately became a coveted notion for local governments looking for a renewed engine to drive growth.

Local governments in Northwest China's Shaanxi and Gansu and Central China's Henan provinces also unveiled their ambitions to apply for FTZs at provincial legislative sessions.