BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) will work with relevant departments to complete the revision of the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) rules to facilitate foreign investment in China's A-share market, Securities Daily quoted Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of CSRC, as saying on Thursday.
The revision is to respond to concerns and needs of the overseas investors, continuously improve the cross-border trading system, and optimize the interconnection mechanism, said Fang.
Statistics show that as of the end of September this year, China's A-share market had seen a net inflow of foreign funds in the amount of 230 billion yuan (about 33.2 billion U.S. dollars), reflecting the foreign investors' long-term optimism on China's economy.
By the end of September, the CSRC has approved the QFII qualification for a total of 309 institutions and the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) qualification for 226 institutions.
According to data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), as of September 29, 2018, the quota in the RQFII program came in at about 640.2 billion yuan (about 93.2 billion U.S. dollars), while that in the QFII program stood at about 100.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Data of the China Securities Depository and Clearing Co., Ltd shows that in September, foreign institutional investors under the QFII and RQFII programs opened 21 and 34 new A-share accounts, respectively, hitting new highs in the number of new accounts in a single month this year.
With some A-shares already included in MSCI Emerging Markets Index and some to be included in the FTSE Global Equity Index Series in June 2019, the rising number of the QFIIs and RQFIIs and investment quotas, the improving Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, and the upcoming Shanghai-London Stock Connect, China's A-share market is expected to have more long-term foreign investment in the future, industry insiders believe. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)