An exhibitor wears protective goggles during a display of laser cutting technology at an optoelectronic fair in Wuhan, Hubei province last November. [Photo/Xinhua]

"By the end of October last year, the number of enterprises based in the zone had amounted to over 45,000, with 59 new firms being founded every day on average", said Ye Qing, deputy director of Hubei provincial bureau of statistics, earlier this year.

"Hubei's FTZ trial application started three years ago, soon after the Shanghai FTZ was launched, while the local authorities undertook 42 specific reforms in the 518-sq-km Donghu zone in 2014", said Tu Shanfeng, director of the Wuhan free trade zone administration.

Official data show that newly added market entities in the Donghu zone surged by 62.33 percent in 2014.

In 2016, the zone further reformed 66 key issues and finished 61. In the year, the gross operating revenue of Donghu-based enterprises exceeded 1 trillion yuan for the first time.

Tu contributed the surges to the reforms. He said many of the reforms have been promoted to the whole province, which brought Xiangyang and Yichang into the latest FTZ planning in 2016.

Hubei also wants to attract more foreign companies to invest in the high-end manufacturing sector and the producer services sector, which include industrial design, engineering consultation and logistics according to a guideline on attracting foreign investment released by the provincial government last month.

Foreign capital is also encouraged to participate in the province's public-private partnership (PPP) projects, to improve local infrastructure.