High-rises dominate the skyline on both sides of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

Continued efforts will be made to advance China's high-level financial opening-up and improve the financial sector's support for the real economy, especially new productive forces, the country's top financial regulators said on June 19.

They made the comments during the two-day Luijiazui Forum in Shanghai, which started on June 19.

During his keynote speech for the forum's opening ceremony, Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country's top securities watchdog, announced the release of eight deepened reform measures for the technology-focused STAR Market at the Shanghai bourse, which is positioned to nurture "hard technologies" such as integrated circuits and biomedicine.

The new measures, projected to further nurture technological innovation and the development of new productive forces, will focus on the completion of basic mechanisms regarding issuance, underwriting, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, equity incentives and trading, he said.

STAR Market-based product portfolios will be enriched, including launching more index-based products and introducing more exchange-traded funds. Efforts will be made to launch futures and options based on the STAR Market 50 Index when appropriate, according to the eight new measures released on June 19.

With a welcoming attitude towards the integration of listed companies, CSRC encourages these companies to fully use equity, cash, directional convertible bonds and consideration structures in share purchases for M&As, said Wu.

Li Yunze, head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, said that the NFRA will work with the Shanghai municipal government to introduce guidelines to develop the city's reinsurance industry. Insurance capital will make experimental attempts to invest in gold contracts traded at the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

The NFRA will also explore relaxing the scope of foreign shareholders for non-bank financial institutions in China. Insurance capital should play a bigger role in supporting the development of strategic emerging industries, advanced manufacturing, new infrastructure and venture capital, he added.

The capital management regulations for qualified foreign institutional investors and renminbi qualified foreign institutional investors are under revision to make them simpler and more complete, said Zhu Hexin, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, on June 19.

While domestic institutions are encouraged to conduct cross-border investment, multinational companies are encouraged to set up global or regional treasury centers in Shanghai, said Zhu.

The regulated development of cross-border investment businesses of equity investment funds should be advanced and technology companies' cross-border financing should be expanded, he added.

Trading of government bonds in the secondary markets will be gradually included in China's monetary policy toolbox, said Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, during the forum's morning session on June 19. This will be part of its efforts to further improve the market-based interest rate control mechanism.

But Pan stressed that such trading does not stand for quantitative easing. This is positioned as a channel for base money injection and a liquidity management tool. Including both buying and selling of government bonds, combined with other tools, such trading will help to create a suitable liquidity environment, he said.

Launched in 2008, the Lujiazui Forum is an annual industry pageant where government officials, financial regulators, market mavens and scholars discuss the most pertinent topics.

During the opening ceremony on June 19, the International Monetary Fund unveiled its Shanghai regional center, which will strengthen the international organization's communication and cooperation with Asia Pacific economies by conducting research on sectors that attract the most attention among emerging markets and middle-income countries.