(Yicai Global) Sept. 28 -- China wants more long-term investors as it continues to open up its financial market to the rest of the world in a bid to become more influential, according to the vice chairman of its top securities watchdog.

"China is a country with high savings rates and the Chinese stock market has sufficient investments," Fang Xinghai said at a press conference in Shanghai yesterday, following the announcement that FTSE Russell will include mainland shares in the Global Equity Index Series.

"But it lacks long-term investments whose profit and loss won't be calculated at the end of each year," he added. He wants the China Securities Regulatory Commission to help bring more long-term investors to the market, and believes the FTSE Russell decision takes it one step closer to that goal.

The move was "as natural as the water flows," Fang said, adding that the inclusion was a milestone for the internationalization of China's capital market. It will change the structure of mainland portfolios and gear them toward more long-term investments, he continued.

The regulator aims to perfect cross-border trading mechanisms to quash concern among foreign investors, and adopt a series of management measures that help overseas investors make transactions, Fang added. It will also optimize the stock suspension and resumption system to meet the needs of the international market.

Editor: James Boynton