Participants of PricewaterhouseCoopers You Plus Special Training program, the first foreign-funded business skill training course approved in China. [Photo/WeChat account: lujiazuijrc]

Zheng Ruyi, a 27 years old financial worker in Shanghai's Lujiazui Financial City, recently become a beneficiary of the opening up policy of Shanghai's free trade zone.

Zheng, who used to work on industrial investment and operation management at a financial group in Shanghai's Lujiazui Financial City, resigned in September and chose to become a full-time student to improve her expertise by joining PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) You Plus Special Training program.

During the one-year study period, Zheng and her classmates will attend business skill training courses given by top managers at Fortune 500 companies.

Moreover, they will have half-year practical training at leading companies such as General Motor China, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, and Oriental DreamWorks, and will have opportunities to participate in their core projects.

The program, the first foreign-funded business skill training course approved in China, was launched by PwC Business Skill Training (Shanghai) Co, a foreign-funded vocational training institution that landed in Lujiazui last year.

The company's arrival in Lujiazui was attributed to Shanghai FTZ's opening up policy and simplified business registration procedures.

Shanghai FTZ announced 54 measures of further opening up in 2014, giving pre-establishment national treatment to foreign invested enterprises while using negative list management method.

In 2015, an amended negative list was released, excluding non-school-system vocational training and making the establishment of foreign-invested vocational training institutions in China possible.

Cai Xiaoying, general manager of PwC Business Skill Training (Shanghai) Co, said that the establishment of the company also benefited from simplified business registration procedures. It only took them six workdays to get the business license and then three months to start operation.

Lujiazui has made full use of its status as part of the Shanghai FTZ to promote opening up and encourage business innovation in foreign-funded companies. PwC subsidiary was one of such examples.

He Jianmu, a Lujiazui official, said that Lujiazui now has 93 multinational headquarters, accounting for 35 percent of Pudong's total. Eight of the world's top 10 asset management enterprises including BlackRock, Fidelity International, JP Morgan, Allianz, the Bank of New York Mellon, AXA, and Deutsche Bank have set up wholly-own subsidiaries in Lujiazui.