A proposal to exempt those who promote reforms from liability when pilot projects fail has triggered heated debate among legislators in Shanghai.

The draft regulation, designed to establish Shanghai as a pioneer in carrying out and encouraging reforms, was put before the Standing Committee of Shanghai People's Congress for discussion on Wednesday.

The regulation comes as this financial center of China is under pressure to pursue economic transformation and is in urgent need of reforms to open up the bottleneck that has impeded its further development, experts said.