The Ministry of Commerce Photo: VCG

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), along with Zhejiang provincial government, issued a detailed plan on Monday on building a bulk commodity resource allocation hub in China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ). Chinese officials and observers said the plan marks the first-of-its-kind in the construction of a bulk commodity resource allocation hub in an FTZ, and it carries great significance in the country's further institutional opening-up. 

The plan aims to build a regional competitive and globally influential bulk commodity resource allocation hub in the FTZ in East China's Zhejiang Province by 2030. The hub will actively align with international high-standard economic and trade rules and continue to promote commodity investment and trade liberalization and facilitation. Meanwhile, the hub will tap into its role as a pilot platform for comprehensive reform and opening-up and improve the capacity of major commodity resource allocation.

The notice involves five aspects of handling bulk commodities, ranging from storage and transportation, processing, trading, commerce to international maritime services. 

One of the aims is to promote industrial chain development of multiple industries, including petrochemicals, iron ore, non-ferrous metal processing as well as intensive processing of grains. The plan stipulates that the FTZ should promote and facilitate the secure and orderly cross-border flow of bulk commodity data.

Zhang Dan, director of the Industrial Internationalization Strategy Institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under MOFCOM, told the Global Times on Monday that the plan marks another step in China's institutional opening-up, and it will inject new innovative dynamics into the country's high-quality development. 

It also sends a resounding signal of China's unwavering commitment to further opening-up, which will lift market confidence while also drawing in more foreign companies to invest in the FTZ, analysts said. 

An official from Zhejiang Pilot FTZ, who asked not to be named, told the Global Times on Monday that the Zhejiang FTZ, after several years of development, has accumulated a solid foundation across a wide range of areas from oil and iron ore to grain transshipment to logistics networks, which makes it a pioneer in the national strategy of building a bulk commodity resource allocation hub. 

According to the official, the Zhejiang hub has set a goal to be on par with global leaders in certain businesses. The hub aims to become an international port comparable to Singapore in providing bonded fuel bunkering services. Singapore ranks as world No.1 in terms of the scale of such services, which is a component of international shipping center development, while Zhoushan Port in Ningbo, also in Zhejiang, ranks fourth globally.  

"This experience is replicable in the construction of other types of hubs across other FTZs, in addition to that of bulk commodities, as China further gears up the reform and opening-up process," he said.  

According to the resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in July, China will facilitate the development of international logistics hubs, as well as hubs for the distribution of commodities and resources in areas where conditions allow, the Xinhua News Agency reported.