Now for our special series on 5 years of China's Free Trade Zones.  As the country opens up to more foreign businesses and investors, many of them are now opening free trade accounts. The accounts allow for easy conversion of overseas currencies, eliminating the previous headache and hassle. The Shanghai Free Trade Zone, which turned 5 this year, is where these accounts are. CGTN's Yang Chengxi takes us to there, and explains how these accounts work.

Chen Kai deals with large sums of money everyday. He is the head of a finance leasing firm. The company purchases expensive foreign medical equipment at their customers' requests and leases the machines back to them. The business model saves medical companies the need to buy equipment with lump-sum payments.

CHEN KAI, GENERAL MANAGER SINOPHARM HOLDING FINANCE LEASING "Each of our orders stand at around 50 to 60 million yuan. The highest can be about 300 million."

In most cases, the leasing company doesn't buy with cash either but relies on long term bank loans.

YANG CHENGXI SHANGHAI "That has made it necessary for leasing companies like this to have stable, low cost financing, and second: a bank account that offers flexible conversion among different currencies."

For the last four years, the company has used a bank account system promoted by the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone. The so-called "Free Trade Account" is an onshore account that lets the company freely convert currencies.

CHEN KAI, GENERAL MANAGER SINOPHARM HOLDING FINANCE LEASING "Since 2015 we've worked with the Bank of Nanjing to use the FT account. We find it helpful since it provides more competitive rates and longer loan periods. These are features we value."

Banks offer lower rates to FT account users. Since the system allows for the free flow of currencies, companies can now borrow from international lenders, who offer lower financing costs.

CHEN KAI, GENERAL MANAGER SINOPHARM HOLDING FINANCE LEASING "Now more and more of our funds are raised through FT accounts."

More than 70 thousand FT accounts have opened in Shanghai. Through them, companies have loaned more than 1.2 trillion yuan as of April. Experts say this mechanism is maturing well for other free trade zones to adopt it.

LU HUA, ASSISTANT DEAN FUDAN SHANGHAI INSTITUTE FOR FREE TRADE ZONE RESEARCH "A recent paper on the Hainan province free trade zone mentioned that it might also put a similar system in place."

Experts say the free trade account represents a change of regulation style, from approvals and quotas to free-flow with appropriate oversight.
 YCX, CGTN, SHANGHAI.