(Yicai Global) May 30 -- China plans to lure in more foreign investment to its National Economic and Technological Development Zones, according to an official with the Ministry of Commerce.

"These development zones have great potential to draw in foreign investment and the country will focus on this area next," Tang Wenhong, head of the ministry's foreign investment administration, said yesterday.

His comments came just a day after China's cabinet, the State Council, gave the green light for management firms behind such zones to go public. The companies will need to meet certain criteria to be eligible, though the cabinet did not disclose the requirements.

China set up the zones, modernized industrial parks, for its economic reform. It opened the first 14 across 12 coastal cities in 1984 and has been adding more ever since, with the tally now reaching 219 across 31 provinces, according to the commerce ministry. Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in the east have more than other regions, with 26 and 21 each.

Combined, these tech-focused zones had a gross domestic product of CNY10.2 trillion (USD1.5 trillion) last year, up 13.9 percent from 2017 and making up 11.3 percent of the national total. That would have ranked them as the world's 13th largest economy ahead of Spain that year, per International Monetary Fund data.

Import and export volume in the zones tallied CNY6.2 trillion, up 10.8 percent and making up more than a fifth of China's total.

Editor: James Boynton