Over the past five years since its launch, China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Free Trade Zone) has made great achievements in advancing the transformation of government functions and promoting opening system reform in investment, trade, finance, and regulation. At the same time, it also faces the problems of slow pace of innovation, insufficient systematic reform, weak legal guarantees, and insufficient system dividends. Shanghai Academy organized experts to conduct research on the key aspects that Shanghai Free Trade Zone should focus on in its future reform and innovation, and the main views are summarized below:

I. Shanghai Free Trade Zone needs to focus on two major relationships in the institutional reform and innovation: 1.the relationship between international rules and self-construction; 2. the relationship between the institutional reform and innovation and the execution of functions.

II. The key directions for the next institutional reform and innovation of Shanghai Free Trade Zone: 1. to make the construction of a free trade port a major direction for development; 2. actively strive for greater institutional reform and innovation initiative.

III. Deepen institutional reform in key fields like investment, trade and finance.

IV. Work to strengthen new international investment and trade rules and participate in their development; further accelerate the pace of aligning to benchmark high-standard international trade and investment rules, particularly the core contents of TPP concerning environment, labor, competitive neutrality, the free flow of information and data, origin criterion, IPRs, as well as investor and national dispute resolution mechanisms in the TPP.

V. Work to advance the opening-up of such service sectors as education, aged care and exhibitions.

VI. Further improve enterprises’ sense of gain about integrated institutional innovation.

VII. Further strengthen the linkage between Shanghai Free Trade Zone and other free trade zones.