China will speed up the process for initial public offerings (IPO) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the domestic stock market, with all their shares tradable at the very beginning.

Wang Xian, an official with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the national capital market regulator, made the remark Tuesday at a Sino-French SME trade fair.

Following years of debate, China decided this year to end the split share structure, which was seen as the major problem in China's stagnant stock market as a large part of the shares were not allowed to be traded on the market.

China's two stock markets Monday unveiled the names of 40 domestically listed firms and their compensation offers to seek the right to float their non-tradable shares, marking the beginning of the country's historic stock market restructuring.

The SME board in China will first finish the split share reform. Any SMEs making IPOs in the future will witness all their shares being tradable at the beginning, Wang said.

The all-tradable mechanism will bring convenience to corporate mergers, and the stock market will try to find more qualified SMEs to go public in the future, Wang said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2005)