China is actively and steadily pushing forward the opening-up of its securities industry, an official said Thursday at the fourth UK-China Forum.

Wang Jianxi, assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said that in order to fulfill China's commitments regarding the securities industry after its entry into the WTO, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges respectively have 41 and 19 foreign institutions which have been authorized to trade B shares directly.

Wang said that until now, two jointly-owned securities companies and eight jointly-owned fund management companies with foreign minority ownership have been approved according to relevant rules.

He said that given the non-convertibility of Chinese currency under the capital account, Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) were introduced in December 2002 as a transitional measure to attract foreign portfolio investment and open up China's capital market in a controlled manner.

Wang said that up to now, 10 banks, including three foreign banks, have been granted the custodian status and eight foreign institutions have obtained the qualification of QFII. Some QFIIs have already begun investment activities, he said.

Wang held that China's securities market will develop together with the rapidly growing Chinese economy. He anticipated that the product range will be more diversified, the market capacity will expand and the market will open wider to the outside world.

Wang also expressed the hope that people from home and abroad will participate in the building of the Chinese securities market so as to promote its development and prosperity.

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2003)