From March this year, CSRC began to accept listing applications from overseas-funded companies registered in the Chinese mainland, Wang Lin -- deputy director of CSRC's International Cooperation Department -- said on the sidelines of a seminar held in Hong Kong.

After one year's so-called coaching period, qualified applicants will be allowed to issue shares on China's A-share market, off limit to foreign investors at present, said Wang.

Wang would not give the names of the companies that have submitted their applications but said the selection process at the beginning will target big-name companies.

About 10 A-share companies are already partly overseas-funded, but they can hardly be called "overseas-funded companies" due to the small stakes owned by overseas investors.

Wang stressed any company, regardless of its ownership, could go public in the mainland under the new approval system, adopted in March last year to replace the old system in which the listing firms were selected by the government through administrative and planned means.

"Under the new rules, as long as a company meets the listing requirements, it can -- in accordance with the relevant requirements and on the recommendation of a securities company that is a qualified lead underwriter -- apply to CSRC," Wang said.

"Companies that meet the requirements will be approved by CSRC, not subject to any planned and amount (of share values to be issued) restriction."

Yet, foreign-invested firms applying for A-share listing must meet basic requirements depicted in the Company Law. Among others, they must have been in operation for at least three years, made profit for the past three consecutive years and the number of shareholders' shares at the face value of 1,000 yuan (US$121) or more is no less than 1,000 -- a rule that requires sole overseas-funded companies to change into shareholding firms before listing.

(China Daily December 10, 2001)