Officials from the Lingang Municipal Government stated at an executive meeting in late July that as an economic special zone, Lingang should conduct more experiments in institutional arrangements, improve weak links, and explore new development paths.

They added that it should also undertake more special functions and further improve the institutional mechanisms to achieve these goals.

Chen Jinshan, Director of the Lingang Special Economic Zone Management Bureau, stated that the zone will seek more institutional innovations by aligning with high standard international economic and trade rules. Chen cited the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement as examples.

Lin Gang will also conduct more "stress tests" in areas such as cross-border data, cross-border finance, value-added telecommunications, and high-end shipping, by incorporating possible challenges and difficulties to test how far the reform can go.

This year, a stress test has been conducted on cross-border data flows in the connected car, mutual fund, and biopharmaceutical industries, and it was released in May.

Companies registered in Lingang or other areas of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone can apply for general cross-border data flow services in the 11 situations specified in the list. However, data transmission activities must be carried out internally within Lingang.