Global Times: 15 years on, China's Nasdaq-style ChiNext board drives innovative economic growth

BEIJING, Oct. 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Wednesday marked the 15th anniversary of the ChiNext board, a Nasdaq-style board for growth enterprises in China, which opened for trading on October 30, 2009. After 15 years of rapid growth, the board has become an important incubator for the development of high-quality private enterprises, and it vigorously propels innovative economic development and industrial upgrades.

As of Wednesday, 1,358 companies from a wide range of sectors including advanced manufacturing, the digital economy, and the green and low-carbon sectors had gone public on the ChiNext, and their total market capitalization exceeded 12 trillion yuan ($1.68 trillion), the Securities Daily reported.

In the past 15 years, the ChiNext board has nurtured quality high-tech companies that have showcased strong innovation capability and growth momentum, and they became important innovation engines driving the country's high-quality economic growth in the new era, Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

At present, there are more than 1,000 private enterprises listed on the ChiNext board, which has become an important incubator for the development of high-quality private companies. Many enterprises have gained tangible benefits after listing on the board, and they have strong expectations for the development of the board.

Since going public on ChiNext in June 2018, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd (CATL), a leading battery maker, has raised nearly 70 billion yuan from investors and issued 4.5 billion yuan in corporate bonds. A private placement completed in 2022 remains the largest ever on the board, which underscores the strong support of China's capital markets for the development of CATL, the company told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Over the years, the ChiNext board has played the role of a "test field" for China's capital market development. It has conducted institutional trials and innovations that better conform to the development characteristics of innovative and growth enterprises, accumulating reform experience for the capital market, Yang noted.

"The rapid development of the ChiNext board has been a highlight in the construction of a multi-layered capital market in China," Yang said, noting that the ChiNext board greatly enhances the capability of China's capital market to serve the new economy.

"The ChiNext board witnessed the leapfrog development of innovative enterprises over the past 15 years," a spokesperson of Chinese medical device company Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

It is hoped that the ChiNext board can accelerate the building of a market, product and institutional system that accommodates the development of innovative growth enterprises, contributing to the development of new quality productive forces, the spokesperson said.

China's top securities regulator is studying and drawing up action plans to further deepen capital market reform, Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said at the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2024 in Beijing on October 18.

On aiding the development of new quality productive forces, the CSRC will focus on supporting high-quality innovative enterprises, enhancing the inclusiveness and adaptability of the system, and reforming and optimizing the issuance and listing system, Wu said.