Shanghai’s innovation board promises to be growth booster: China Daily editorial

The Shanghai Stock Exchange started accepting listing applications for its new Science and Technology Innovation Board from Monday and securities companies are busy testing their trading systems, meaning listings will happen soon, perhaps as early as mid-June.

It is expected that about 150 companies will be listed on the new board this year. The Nasdaq-style high-tech board, announced by President Xi Jinping in November at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo, marks a major step forward in China’s securities market reform as it further liberalizes the listing procedures and relevant trading rules.

The inauguration and healthy development of the new board will provide solid support for the development of the country’s technology start-ups, and further promote the reform and opening-up of China’s financial market.

The board marks important progress in the country’s efforts to integrate its financial markets with global practices. Policymakers, for instance, have decided to adopt the registration-based listing system, which is popular in international securities markets, and drop the current lengthy and cumbersome approval process for initial public offerings.

The registration system will reduce regulatory red tape and accelerate the listing process. Under the current approval-based listing system, it can take months, even years, for applicants to be listed on China’s stock exchanges.

Moreover, the new board lowers the threshold for listing compared with the current standards to facilitate the financing of high-tech start-ups. The current requirements for listing, such as three years of profit records, have proved too high for emerging technology companies.

But while the new board is a constructive innovation to support China’s technology development, regulators must draw lessons from the main board and concentrate on building up relevant regulatory systems to ensure the new board’s healthy development.

Information disclosure, for example, must be strictly regulated to leave no room for fraudulent companies. Delisting rules must also be strengthened to ensure that only qualified companies are left in the market.

With effective regulation, the new board will be a significant reform measure that will help Shanghai maintain its status as a pioneer of financial reforms and help realize the goal of turning the city into one of the world’s top financial centers, on a par with Hong Kong, London and New York.

And by making the capital market more supportive of innovative science and technology enterprises, particularly those pursuing key and core technology innovation, the new board will give a big boost to the country’s innovation-driven development strategy.