Free-trade Shanghai aims to create a 'mini-Hong Kong'<br />Shanghai has put its best foot forward in building the mainland's first free-trade zone, an ambitious project that demonstrates the city's increasing assertiveness in its bid to become a world-class metropolis.<br />The plan, aimed at eventually creating a "mini-Hong Kong" in the mainland's commercial capital, underlines the new city leaders' ambitions of transforming Shanghai into the envy of Asia amid China's rising economic might.<br />According to two government officials, the blueprint of the free-trade zone had received approval from the central government before acting mayor Yang Xiong unveiled the proposal in the government report delivered at the Shanghai People's Congress on Sunday.
