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SHENYANG, April 5-- On the day of their wedding ceremony, Zhou Yichen and Meng Jiakang welcomed their first "baby" -- a trade company registered in the free trade zone (FTZ) of northeast China's Liaoning Province. Zhou, a native of Liaoning's Yingkou City, met his bride at university in Singapore. After graduation, they worked in Singapore until the ceremony in Zhou's hometown. After the wedding, they toured the FTZ service center in Yingkou, which offers a streamlined application process and cross-border yuan trade settlement -- strong draws for the newlyweds. "We just decided to register a company named after us, and the business license was obtained in only half an hour," said Meng, the bride. Zhou found a QR code on the new business license, which led to a big data service platform and online government department services. China announced its third group of FTZs last April -- in Liaoning, Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan and Shaanxi -- bringing the total number of FTZs to 11. FTZs are areas that enjoy preferential policies, easier customs clearance, favorable taxes and simpler business applications. Liaoning was among the first regions in China to be industrialized, and it has relied largely on heavy industry, energy resources and a large number of state-owned enterprises. However, the investment environment in northeast China was daunting, largely because of high costs and low efficiency caused by government bureaucracy. | 
