Located in both coastal regions and the hinterland, China's six "state-level new areas" have been innovating to chart the way forward for the country's new round of reform and opening up.

The pilot areas, set up within two decades from 1992 to 2012 in the cities and provinces of Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Gansu and Guangdong, have been playing an important role in testing reforms and demonstrating their outcomes.

Together with five special economic zones and 14 coastal open cities established in the early years of reform and opening up, the new areas have showed the government's determination to explore development in different geopolitical regions, and significantly deepened China's economic transition and liberalization in the new century.

As China's reform enters a deep-water zone with a key political meeting set to open on Saturday, the new areas are continuing to shed light on the country's future development by pushing forward administrative, economic and social upgrades.

STREAMLINED ADMINISTRATION

In September this year, Tianjin Binhai New Area, established in 2006, announced the abolition of administrative committees for its three districts, putting their administration directly under the area government.

By doing so, the administration of the Binhai New Area, seen as a new growth engine around the Bohai Bay in north China, was streamlined.

Likewise, Shanghai's Pudong New Area, the country's first such new area, being founded in 1992 to improve the international competitiveness of the flourishing Yangtze Delta region, was expanded to include Nanhui District in 2009 after initially integrating several districts and counties.

"Such measures have enabled the new areas to pool land and capital resources and increase efficiency in policy making and implementation, unleashing great potential for their development," said Li Hanlin, a professor with the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Gansu Provincial Committee, who has long been studying the new areas.

Li, however, noted that more important than administrative adjustment is the functional transition of the governments and their improvement in efficiency.

Zhoushan Islands New Area in Zhejiang Province has slashed its government departments by 25 percent at area level, and 30 percent at district and county levels, so as to streamline administration, making it a pioneer in developing China's vast maritime resources.

GROWTH ENGINE VS SOCIAL INNOVATION

Although the six new areas have their own different focuses in development, they all bear the same mission of providing impetus to the regional economies as growth engines.

Established in September last year, the youngest Nansha New Area in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, is expected to lead industrial restructuring in the Pearl River Delta and serve as an important platform for cooperation between Guangdong and neighboring Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

Meanwhile, Lanzhou New Area in northwest China's Gansu Province marks the country's latest effort to accelerate the development of its western regions and is key for China's further opening of its west.

Cutting-edge high-end industries have been brought into these areas, indicating their higher standards in developing the regional economy.

While economic restructuring and upgrading have been prioritized within these areas, social innovation to better people's livelihood is also given the same consideration.

Comprehensive reforms regarding education, healthcare, housing and environmental protection have been pushed forward along with economic growth.

Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area, for example, is a pilot area for comprehensive urban-rural reform in the hopes of narrowing the gaps between cities and rural areas.

Nansha New Area has also earmarked some 200 square km of land along the coastline as areas that are not permitted for economic development so as to preserve the primitive ecosystem.

"The best coastlines in Nansha New Area will not give way to industrial production or construction. Instead, they will be reserved only for people's leisure," vowed Li Zigen, deputy head of the area's administrative committee.

Zhou Liqun, a professor with Nankai University, said the new areas have displayed their advantages in building an integrated urban-rural public service mechanism and upholding the ideology of environmental protection alongside development.

In addition to the state-level development areas, other pilot zones have been set up to test specific reforms.

Qianhai in Shenzhen City, which neighbors Hong Kong, has been designated as a test bed for China's financial opening up, after steps taken by the government to increase the international use of the yuan, the Chinese currency.

Moreover, Shanghai Free Trade Zone, launched at the end of September, will push financial reform to a new extent.

The forthcoming Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, scheduled to run from Nov. 9 to 12 in Beijing, is expected to discuss major issues concerning comprehensive reform as China faces significant economic and social challenges.

Experts say the lessons and experience drawn from the six pilot new areas will lay a solid foundation and offer wisdom for the nation's strategic transformation in a new era.