The entrance to the Tianjin Airport Area, one of the three areas of the Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone. [Photo/Xinhua]

From the approval of economic and technological development areas in coastal areas in 1981 to free trade zones, the past three decades have witnessed the growth of development areas and the steady opening up.

Liu Xiaohua, former director of the State Council's special district office, remarked that special economic districts as the major drive force of the regional economic development and opening up are a certain path to reform according the country's historic environment.

The country had a total of 215 national level economic and technological development areas in June 2014. These development areas play a significant role in regional economic and social development.

Founded in December 1984, the Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA) is among the first national development areas and has been pushing forward the growth of Tianjin for three decades. Now, TEDA is the most active and globalized economic area in North China. TEDA is also the first choice of foreign investment in North China.

The success of development areas gradually gave birth to emerging economic development areas such as the free trade zones and innovative and hi-tech districts. The free trade zone not only provides services such as bonded storage, export processing, and transit trade but also enjoys registration-free, tax-free, and bonded preferential policies.

The free trade zones using this unique custom clearance format are the most convenient and effective economic areas, with the highest level of opening up and the most preferential policies.

Different from free trade zones, the development areas and innovative and hi-tech districts focus on maximizing the transition of technological results into productivity. This process should be based on intelligent convergence, open environment, preference for high tech industries, reforms, and optimization of software and hardware.

Zhongguancun Science Park is typical of innovative and hi-tech districts. As the most accumulated area of educational and technological intelligence in the country, the park includes more than 40 colleges and universities, 206 national level research institutions, 112 national level major laboratories, 26 university-based technological parks, and 34 entrepreneurship parks for returned students.

It is the innovative and high technological resources that give birth to nearly 20,000 technological enterprises, including Lenovo and Baidu. Zhongguancun has as many as 254 listed companies with a total market value of more than three trillion yuan ($484.2 billion) by 2014.

The continuous improvement of development areas, free trade zones, and innovative and hi-tech districts gradually results in the country's regional economic development, experts say. The free trade zones promote and benefit this format simultaneously.

Zheng Weiming, director of the Administrative Committee of Binhai New Area's Central Business Area, one of the three areas of the Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone, said, "We can see the significance from the cautious decision-making process of the second batch of free trade zones."

Free trade zones serve as pioneers in reform and opening up. And the growing process from development areas to free trade zones is inevitable.

Zheng added, "Thanks to free trade zones, the country's opening up has more varieties of formats and also gets closer to global rules."

As a deputy director of the Global Trade Relations Department of the Ministry of Commerce, Sun Yuanjiang has taken charge of negotiations between China and other country's free trade zones.

Sun said that as the negotiations accelerate, the benefits for China from opening up after joining the WTO are gradually vanishing. One of the key points is paying close attention to the changes in the world trade rules.

The free trade zones in China are designed to drive the entire country's economy.

Liu Enzhuan, member of the drafting team of the Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone said that the deeper goal of the free trade zones is exploring the relationship between government and market. The free trade zones continuously push forward the economic transition and upgrade to meet global requirements.