Recently, the General Office of the State Council has issued the Circular on Establishing National Demonstration Zones for the Program of "Made in China 2025" (the "Circular").
The Circular proposes that districts of municipalities directly under the Central Government, sub-provincial cities, and prefectural cities may apply for setting up demonstration zones locally; cities that are located adjacent to each other and are highly associated in relevant industries could apply for establishing demonstration zones together. A city (city cluster) filing such application shall meet three requirements, such as "having in place a flexible supporting system for micro policies, enjoying favorable conditions for market development and being able to effectively play its demonstrating and leading role". In addition, the Circular calls for accelerating the development of platform-type large enterprises and "specialized, refined, featured and innovative" small and medium-sized enterprises, making a batch of new manufacturing enterprises with core competitive grow much stronger, promoting the integrated development of large, medium and small-sized enterprises, and shaping a certain number of coordinative innovation hubs with significant influences as well as some advanced manufacturing clusters with notable advantages. Moreover, the Circular clarifies that provincial people's governments at the place of these demonstration zones may delegate the approval power of certain affairs, such as foreign investment management, economic and trade cooperation, and investment approval, to demonstration zones.