Approved on April 9, 2026, China’s Inner Mongolia Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) brings the country’s total number of FTZs to 23, completing the national FTZ map and positioning Inner Mongolia as a strategic gateway to Russia and Mongolia. The zone integrates rare earth supply chains, AI computing infrastructure, and cross‑border rail logistics into a single policy platform.

On April 9, 2026, the State Council approved the establishment of the China (Inner Mongolia) Pilot Free Trade Zone in a circular issued to relevant local authorities, bringing China’s total number of pilot free trade zones (FTZs) to 23. The zone was officially inaugurated two days later, on April 11, at a ceremony in Hohhot.

In many respects, the new zone represents the final piece of an FTZ map that has been two decades in the making: a network that now stretches from Hainan in the south to the Russian and Mongolian border in the north, with every major province, autonomous region, and municipality now represented.

Unlike the FTZ additions of recent years, which have largely served to deepen financial services integration (Hainan), cross-strait economic links (Fujian), or Greater Bay Area (GBA) cooperation (Guangdong), the Inner Mongolia FTZ is built around a fundamentally different proposition. Its logic is geographic and strategic rather than sectoral: Inner Mongolia shares over 4,200 kilometers of border with Russia and Mongolia, hosts the world’s single largest rare earth deposit at Bayan Obo, and has quietly become one of China’s most significant data center and AI computing hubs. The FTZ designation is China’s signal that it intends to formalize and scale all three of these advantages within a single, integrated policy zone.

This article sets out the policy framework, the investment landscape, the sectors with the clearest entry routes for foreign investors.

Published Date:2026-04-22