NEW YORK, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China's launch of a sci-tech innovation board, a key reform step for the country's capital market, will help spur future growth of innovative companies, a U.S. expert has said.
"China's capital market continues to evolve in a very positive and dramatic fashion, and the launch of the new board will provide many innovative companies an avenue to raise fund, thus propelling future growth," Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer at New York-based Krane Funds Advisors, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
The new board, proposed in November 2018 and approved in January, will provide direct financing support for tech companies and help the world's second-largest capital market spearhead a new round of reforms.
Earlier this month, the board was inaugurated at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai.
The launch, after just months of preparations, highlighted China's determination and confidence in using financial reform to aid its science and technology innovation, according to the expert.
The policymakers have recognized the urgent demand that many private companies need capital in order to grow stronger, said Ahern.
The board has been regarded as a major reform step for China's capital market as it will give a test run to a long-expected registration-based system for IPOs and will ease the listing criteria, such as allowing companies that have yet to make a profit to list.
Ahern noted that the move "should help many private companies who historically have had difficulty accessing fresh capital."
China International Capital Corporation expected that about 150 firms will be listed on the new board this year, raising 50 billion yuan (about 7.27 billion U.S. dollars) to 100 billion yuan.
China's top court unveiled a guideline Friday to offer judicial guarantee to ensure the newly launched board and the pilot registration-based IPO reform run smoothly.
Ahern, with long-time expertise in providing investors with strategies to capture China's importance in their investment portfolio, also pointed out that "China's financial markets have opened up in a very significant fashion."
"Certainly, it provides a great opportunity for investors to go to China and experience the dynamic and growing economy," he said.
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