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Co-sponsored by the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, the Shenzhen Municipal Government, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the 6th SME Financing Forum witnessed a grand opening yesterday in Shenzhen. Shang Fulin, chairman of the country’s top securities regulator and Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, as well as other top officials of relevant authorities, made key speeches at the forum.
Cheng Siwei said the launch of China’s Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) should adopt the principle of “Earlier is better than later”, as China has put forward the strategy of building the country into an innovation-oriented power and the legal infrastructure for a multi-tier capital market has been improved substantially. The appearance of more high-value and high-growth enterprises also lays a solid basis for the establishment of a GEM market. Cheng also emphasized effective measures to protect the interests of investors through rigorous supervision and imposition of heavy penalties to weed out false information disclosure and malicious market manipulation.
In his keynote speech, Shang Fulin said accelerating the construction of GEM topped the agenda of building a multi-tier capital market, which should serve as a platform supporting independent innovation of enterprises. Based on this orientation, GEM should highlight three key features, according to Shang: 1) to help accelerate the transformation of the economic development model and promote the optimization and upgrade of the industrial structure; 2) to serve the coordinated development between urban and rural areas and between different regions and facilitate the general enhancement of the national economy’s quality; 3) to help strengthen energy conservation, environment protection and sustained development capability.
Shang finally pointed out that by learning from the experiences of mature overseas GEMs, and the successful construction of the domestic SME market, China should make system innovations for the upcoming GEM in terms of enterprise access, public offering review, market supervision, trading & operation, and market exit. The GEM is supposed to have a proper access threshold to attract and well suit the characteristics of high-growth innovative enterprises. Listed companies should display high growth, innovation and industrial diversity.
In addition, Shang pointed out preparations in system arrangement, listing resources, technical systems, market promotion and investor education should all be in place.
Chen Dongzheng, president of the Shenzhen bourse and chairman of the meeting, cautioned that amid myriad complexities, it is imperative to study the features and problems of Chinese growth enterprises and formulate rules on issuance, listing, trading and regulation that suit them, and make preparations in all aspects to ensure the smooth launch and operation of the GEM.
