ZEISS Greater China President: Zeiss’s development in line with Shanghai FTZ

When asked about how his company has benefited from FTZ’s innovative policies, Mr. Foerst replied, “We have managed to reduce the time in which we bring in products and take them out by 30%. We can easily take the developed products out of the free trade zone and back in, which enables us to be much more efficient in the way we do research and development here and gives us big advantages. In the area of financing, it has become much easier over the years. So today for example, we do complete cash pooling for all our China companies out of Shanghai.”

Driving reform through opening up, with the emphasis on institutional innovation rather than preferential policies, is a major characteristic of the Shanghai FTZ. As a representative of the foreign companies in the zone, Mr. Foerst is fully aware of what that means. “I must say here the pilot FTZ has been extremely constructive.” Upgrading from a bonded area, the zone has successively launched a range of measures to promote the simplification of trade, finance and customs, which have proved to be efficient.