When the city of Shanghai's free trade zone opened in its Pudong New Area in 2013, it was expected to boost local companies' expansion overseas and indeed it did, as the outbound investment reached 7.9 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) last year, accounting for nearly half of the city's total investment abroad.

Among the most popular investment destinations are the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, United States, Singapore, Australia, the UK, Israel, Canada, and here at home, Hong Kong, while the most favored industries are software, IT, electronic communications, bio-medicine, real estate, and import and export business.

One insider said that this is a good time for Chinese companies to go global, thanks to the emergence of new industries, stronger government support, and the gradual internationalization of the yuan. And the overseas expansion is expected to contribute to Pudong's economic and social development.

Local commerce authorities said that the expansion will also help with industrial restructuring, foreign trade growth, and the training of top management personnel and that Pudong will concentrate on its key industries, improving services for overseas expansion, and taxation, finance, and foreign exchange policies for outbound investment.