Plans by the Shanghai authorities to launch a free trade zone in the municipality will be submitted to the State Council later this month, and will be published as early as July, news portal finance.qq.com reported Thursday.

"The free trade zone will facilitate trade, and more preferential tax policies and opening policies for foreign exchange are expected (to be launched)," the website quoted an unnamed official from Shanghai Free Trade Zones as saying.

Shanghai Securities News, a daily newspaper affiliated to the Xinhua News Agency, reported earlier this month that the central government would allow full convertibility of the yuan in the free trade zone, a move to help Shanghai grow into an international financial center.

The plan to launch a free trade zone is one of Shanghai municipal government's major tasks for this year, according to a government work report delivered by Yang Xiong, then acting mayor of Shanghai, at the first session of the 14th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress held on January 27.

In March, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also said at a seminar held in Shanghai that "we should boost domestic demand through further opening-up, and use opening-up to provide a push for reform."