The report of the 20th CPC National Congress stressed the need to promote high-level opening up and steadily expand institutional opening up in terms of rules，regulations，management，and standards. Institutional opening up is not only related to the quality and efficiency of China’s own development，but also an inevitable requirement for actively participating in global economic governance and building an open economy. The core task of the pilot free trade is institutional innovation，which plays a pivotal role in institutional opening up. Theoretically，institutional opening up has surpassed the previous open-up model that emphasized the free flow of goods and services，and instead focused on the international docking and integration on institutional levels such as rules，standards，and regulatory environment，with richer connotations and characteristics. The Pilot Free Trade Zone has obvious advantages in promoting institutional opening up. According to the latest index results released by Institute of Free Trade Zones of Sun Yat-sen University，the total score of the institutional innovation index of the 54 free trade zones in China in 2023 is 78.03 points on average，which is a significant improvement compared with last year. The free trade pilot zones（ports）across the country have been centered on institutional innovation，and have accomplished a large number of institutional innovation achievements，laying a solid practical foundation for promoting institutional opening up. In the next stage，the Pilot Free Trade Zones should take the lead in exploring ways to break through various barriers between domestic and foreign markets，continuously promote institutional opening-up，and make due contributions to building a new open economic system.