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Foreign-funded Firms to Be Listed in Three Stages: Official
Foreign-funded companies will be permitted to list in China's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets in three stages-first the Sino-foreign joint ventures in China's inland, then foreign-funded enterprises, and finally transnationals, said Wang Jianxi, secretary-general of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
But the detailed timetable for the list and for the issuance of China-Depositary-Receipt (CDR) of foreign companies is still under consideration, Wang said.
In addition, departments in charge will consider the plans of qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) and of qualified domestic institutional investors (QDII).
China to Consider Foreign Stock Exchange ListingsChina will seriously consider allowing foreign companies to list on its stock markets after it is formally admitted to the World Trade Organisation, China's trade minister said Tuesday in Hong Kong. "How to develop the stock market and its regulations is a question we are seriously taking into consideration," said Shi Guangsheng, China's Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.
"The opening process should be gradual... after China's joining to the WTO, the Chinese government will study carefully the issue of opening up foreign enterprises to be listed," Shi told the East Asia Economic Summit in Hong Kong organised by the World Economic Forum.
He was responding to a question from a representative of the Shanghai Stock Exchange about when and how the Beijing government would allow foreign companies to list. China is expected to be formally admitted to the WTO late this year.
However, the managing director of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Asia, Andy Xie Guozhong, cautioned Beijing could not rush such measures.
"China has got to make state enterprises able to compete for capital," Xie said.
"If you opened it right away, then the state enterprises may not be able to have access to capital, which could (lead) to serious social problems," Xie added.
The group executive vice president of the New York Stock Exchange, Georges Ugeux, said the NYSE would do anything it could to encourage foreign companies to list in Shanghai.
But Ugeux said the convertibility of the yuan would be a "slight technical problem" for the listing of foreign companies in China.
A Hong Kong daily reported Tuesday that China's stock markets watchdog is also considering allowing mainland investors to buy shares on Hong Kong's markets.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission was studying the feasibility of setting up a qualified domestic institutional investor mechanism to allow mainland investors to buy shares in overseas stockmarkets, including Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post quoted the commission's deputy secretary general Wang Jianxi as saying.
Wang said the study followed a suggestion by the Hong Kong regional government to allow mainland investors to buy Hong Kong shares.
At the summit, Shi also reiterated his government's economic growth target of 7.0 percent for this year.
Chinese growth has slowed this year due to falling exports amid the global slowdown. Third quarter GDP growth was 7.0 percent from a year earlier, a decline from 7.8 percent in the second quarter and 8.1 percent in the first.
However, Shi said the full impact of the fallout from the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States on China's economy would not be seen until early next year.
"The impact (of the attacks) on this year's foreign trade and national economy may not be serious," he said.
"I think the impact will be more obvious next year, especially in the first half."
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