Report on Indices of Government Transparency of Pilot Free Trade Zones (2020)–From the Perspective of Information Disclosure on Government Websites of Free Trade Zones

In 2021, the Center for Studies of the National Rule of Law Index of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Innovation Project Team on the Rule of Law Index of the Institute of Law of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences carried out a third-party assessment of the disclosure of government information by 21 pilot free trade zones in China and 67 pilot free trade areas under them from the perspectives of the openness of decision-making, the openness of administration, openness of service, the openness of implementation, the openness of results, platform construction and information disclosure upon application. The assessment shows that there was a lack of uniform standards on information disclosure in pilot free trade zones, with the situation varying greatly from free trade zone to free trade zone and showing obvious regional differences. On the whole, the situation in coastal or southern regions was better than in inland and northern regions, but there was a large room for improvement in all regions. Therefore, China should further rationalize the administration system, increase the efforts on open government work, clarify the contents and standards of openness, and strengthen the construction of platforms of openness in free trade zones.