China sets threshold for individual investor's participation in sci-tech board

BEIJING - Individual investors who want to participate in the much-anticipated science and technology innovation board have to have an asset of 500,000 yuan ($74,627) and at least two years of experience in securities trading, according to the latest regulations released by China's top securities regulator.

"This is conducive to ensure that the sci-tech board runs smoothly at the beginning, under the precondition of adequate market liquidity," said the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

China is preparing for the launch of a sci-tech innovation board in a bid to leverage financial reforms to boost the development of the high-tech sectors and to advance economic transition.

The new board will be launched on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and experiment with registration-based IPOs. First proposed in November 2018 and approved in late January, it has since been pushed forward at full speed.

Until now, China has 3,607 listed firms with a total market capitalization of 53 trillion yuan. However, the weight of sci-tech firms remains quite limited.

The establishment of the board will help promote technological innovation, high-quality development of the economy and market-oriented reform of the capital market, according to Yi Huiman, CSRC chairman.

The tech board will ease the listing criteria, such as allowing firms that have yet to make a profit to list but will also adopt higher requirements for information disclosure.

Li Chao, CSRC vice chairman, said the new board will have strict IPO standards and certain procedures and will not be flooded by listed firms.

The sci-tech board will focus on high-tech and strategically emerging sectors such as new generation information technology, advanced equipment, new materials and energy, and biomedicine. The new board is likely to be rolled out as soon as the first half of this year.