Technified

China’s eagerly awaited Science and Technology Innovation Board opens a key financing channel for innovative tech and will have a profound impact on China’s capital market, writes Luo WeiTeng

Shouldering the dream of a Chinese NASDAQ, the Science and Technology Innovation Board (STIB) has hit the ground running, but how this bold undertaking will progress and whether it will prosper are questions that have the world watching.

At the opening ceremony for the first China International Import Expo in November last year, President Xi Jinping announced to foreign guests from various countries that the STIB would be established on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), accompanied by a pilot registration system.

From 30 January this year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the SSE issued a draft for comment on relevant rules before the Lunar New Year, with an official draft issued immediately after the conclusion of the period for seeking comments on 2 March, and an announcement that the acceptance of materials would start on that very day. It is fair to say that the STIB’s creation was fast tracked.

On 30 April, according to the SSE website, Luoyang Jalon Micro-Nano New Materials, National Silicon Industry Group and CHISON Medical Technologies intended to apply to list on the STIB. To date, the applications of 98 enterprises to list on the STIB have been confirmed, with 78 of those at the inquiry stage. An opening date, although not yet flagged, should be soon.

“Although, from the outside, the rollout of the STIB seems to have moved at lightning speed, it is my understanding that the rollout of the STIB and registration system was the inevitable next step in the development of China’s securities markets,” says Calista Huang, a partner at Llinks Law Offices in Shanghai.

Echo Liu, a partner at Zhuoxin Law Firm in Guangzhou, says that behind the seemingly lightning quick rollout of the STIB lay years of deliberation and consideration on the registration system and STIB, along with conjecture on the various systems and industry leanings of the STIB.