(Yicai Global) Nov. 7 -- China will continue to promote the high-level opening up of its capital markets to overseas investors and support Chinese companies to go public abroad, the vice chairman of the country’s securities regulator said.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission will steadfastly improve institutions and arrangements to further facilitate cross-border investment by both Chinese and foreign investors and to better support companies’ cross-border financing and growth, Fang Xinghai said at the fifth Hongqiao International Economic Forum held on Nov. 5.

The securities regulator will perfect the interconnective mechanisms with stock exchanges that issue Global and Chinese Depositary Receipts, spur the implementation of reforms for overseas listings and support companies to go public abroad in line with laws and regulations, Fang said.

It will also strengthen cooperation between capital markets on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong as well as expand the scope of the stock connect programs between Hong Kong and the mainland bourses in Shanghai and Shenzhen by including more mainland-listed stocks, Fang said. More Chinese yuan-denominated stock trading in Hong Kong will be promoted, and the commission will collaborate with Hong Kong authorities on national bonds and futures.

The Shanghai-London Stock Connect program has been expanded to cover eligible companies that have gone public in Shenzhen, Switzerland and Germany, he said. The issuance of GDRs in overseas regions will greatly boost the global operations of mainland-listed firms.

The CSRC is also actively supporting brokerages of securities, funds and futures of a certain size and of good standing to expand the scope of their cross-border businesses and take more active part in international competition, the vice chair said.

The interconnectivity of exchange-traded funds between China and Japan as well as between Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hong Kong has been improved, and soon ETFs between China and Singapore will be debuted. The scope of futures and options is also continuously being enlarged to lure more overseas investors.

The CSRC will support Hong Kong to launch index futures for mainland-listed stocks to provide foreign investors with more tools to manage risks, Yang said. It will also facilitate high-quality overseas firms to issue panda bonds, which are yuan-denominated notes sold by a non-Chinese issuer on the mainland, in the bond markets.

“We will resolutely introduce more foreign institutional investors, to promote the growth of organizational investors in China’s capital markets,” Fang said. Allocation-type and long-term funds have maintained net inflows since the start of the year, which proves that foreign capital is optimistic about the long-term investment value of mainland shares and demonstrates their confidence in the long-term growth of the Chinese economy, he added.

Editors: Xu Wei, Kim Taylor