(Yicai) Oct. 15 -- The Beijing Stock Exchange has unveiled new regulations with tighter innovation requirements for companies planning initial public offerings to foster innovative enterprises and solidify its position as a key platform for China’s technology-driven economic growth.

The bourse yesterday established benchmarks for research and development capabilities that IPO candidates must meet, according to an internal document obtained by Yicai. Under the new guidelines, companies planning to go public on the BSE need to satisfy at least one of three criteria.

For the first criterion, IPO applicants should meet at least one of the three following R&D investment threshold for the three years before the listing: R&D investment ratio to operating revenue of more than 3 percent, average annual R&D investment exceeding CNY10 million (USD1.4 million), and compound annual R&D investment growth rate of over 10 percent.

Firms can also qualify for an IPO if their latest annual R&D investment exceeded CNY15 million and their R&D staff accounted for more than 10 percent of the total.

For the second criterion, IPO applicants need to possess more than three independently or jointly developed type-1 intellectual property rights or over 50 software copyrights that have been successfully applied to their business operation.

And for the third criterion, they should have contributed to the development of at least two international, national, or industry standards in their respective fields.

Sponsors must thoroughly assess whether the IPO applicants they serve meet the requirements for technological innovation, the BSE document also noted.

As the youngest and smallest Chinese mainland bourse, the BSE has positioned itself as a hub for innovative small- and medium-sized enterprises.

As of June 30, the BSE had 249 listed companies, of which over 92 percent were high-tech enterprises, and 48 percent had proprietary high-tech capabilities. The average R&D investment of BSE-listed firms over the past three years was CNY31.8 million, with the R&D investment ratio to operating revenue of nearly 6 percent for profitable firms.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione