China's capital market will be one of the largest, most open and solid in the world by 2020, Qi Bin, director of the Research Center with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said at the 31st China Daily CEO Roundtable in Beijing.

"China's capital market is embracing great opportunities, given the country's fast-growing and sustainable economy and an adequate money supply," Qi said.

He said China could learn from the mistakes of Japan, which relied too much on bank lending instead of raising funds directly from the capital market in the 1990s.

"From the experience of many developed countries, a strong capital market is the key to help solve problems such as insufficient domestic demand, restructure the economy and establish a sustainable development mechanism, " Qi said.

The combined market value of China's stock market tripled to reach 9 trillion yuan in 2006, thanks to a share restructure reform conducted by the Chinese government and the introduction of new laws and rules in the market.

The current market value of the mainland stock market is 11.7 trillion, rising from its original rank of No 4 to No 1 among all emerging markets.

With the market allowed to raise capital in May 2006, Shanghai witnessed large initial public offerings and listings of blue-chip companies such as Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The listing of the two major commercial banks also created a successful model for 'A+H' listing on China's stock market, with mainland companies able to simultaneously issue A shares in Shanghai as well as H shares in Hong Kong.

The rapid growth of the mainland market is attracting more and more companies, including those already listed overseas, to list in Shanghai. Bank of Communications, another of the top five commercial banks, told China Daily that it had submitted its application to the CSRC for a mainland listing.

"Hopefully, we will list in Shanghai in the first half of 2007," said Dicky Yip, executive vice-president of Bank of Communications.

China's capital market is undergoing fundamental changes following the launch of a share restructure reform on April 30, 2005, to convert State-owned non-tradable shares to tradable ones.

Meanwhile, two major laws introduced at the beginning of last year have added to the sophistication of China's capital markets once plagued by embezzlement scandals and a lack of transparency.

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