Since Pingtan was included in the China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone on April 21, 2015, more and more enterprises saw its preferential policies and moved in the zone, local news portal ptnet.cn reported on March 4.

During the ten months from April 21, 2015 to Feb 21, 2016, the zone added nearly 1,800 new companies, a surge of 481.4 percent compare with the same period of the previous year. Among them, about 1,600 were Chinese-funded, with registered capital totaling 70.8 billion yuan ($10.8 billion) and the remaining 200 were foreign-funded.

The new comers included quite a lot of subsidiaries of leading enterprises, such as Hong Kong's Sino Promise Group and Taiwan's T.V.L. Business Group.

The Pingtan Xiongying Shipyard Co was one of the first beneficiaries of the free trade zone. According to its managers, the zone's favorable policies help the company accelerate its transformation and upgrading.

Officials added that so far, the zone had nearly 2,900 companies in total, with 2,500 Chinese ones and 400 foreign-funded.