STAR Market helps tech-focused firms fuel China’s new quality productive forces

China's Nasdaq-style sci-tech innovation board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, also known as the STAR Market, celebrated its fifth anniversary on Monday. It has helped more than 570 technology companies raise 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion), with 60 percent of them driving import replacement efforts, as a key driver of China's new quality productive forces.

The STAR Market has helped 573 companies in sectors such as information technology, biomedicine, high-end equipment, new energy, new materials, energy conservation, environmental protection and strategic emerging industries to go public, the China Media Group reported.

These companies have a total market capitalization of 5 trillion yuan. Their IPOS raised 910.8 billion yuan, and secondary rounds of financing raised 158.1 billion yuan, totaling more than 1 trillion yuan.

Thanks to consistent and significant investment in research and development, 30 percent of companies on the STAR Market have made groundbreaking products or projects, while 60 percent are leading the way in replacing imported products with their own innovative technologies.
The STAR Market has attracted a significant number of cutting-edge companies in the semiconductor and biotechnology industries. There are 114 chip companies, covering the entire industrial chain of the semiconductor sector, and 111 companies in the field of biomedicine.

This influx of innovative companies has helped solidify the STAR Market's reputation as a hub for groundbreaking technologies and advancements.

Qian Yujun, president of UBS China and chairman of UBS Securities, told the Global Times on Monday that the STAR Market has supported more than 500 technology companies in the past five years, showcasing its effectiveness in attracting and fostering innovation in the technology sector and the overall economy.

"These companies have showed a notable increase in research and development investment after their IPOs, leading to significant improvements in their operating income and profits. This demonstrates the positive impact provided by the STAR Market in empowering technology innovation," Qian said.

According to a resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China will establish a mechanism for ensuring funding increases for industries of the future; improve the policy and governance systems for promoting the development of strategic industries such as next-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, aviation and aerospace, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, biomedicine and quantum technology, and steer emerging industries toward sound and orderly development.

China will also improve the functions of the capital market to give balanced weight to investment and financing, prevent risks and tighten regulation to promote the sound and stable development of the capital market as well as facilitate the entry of long-term capital into the market.

This year, China's reform of the capital market has accelerated with several measures.

In June, China's top securities regulator rolled out new measures to further reform the STAR market to better serve sci-tech innovation and promote the development of new quality productive forces. The measures include giving priority to the listing of enterprises making breakthroughs in new industries, new business patterns and new technologies.

In April, the State Council released a new guideline, widely known as the State Council Nine-Point Guideline, to boost the high-quality development of the capital market through 2035.

The high-quality development of China's capital market has prompted foreign institutions to accelerate their presence in the Chinese capital market. BNP Paribas launched its securities unit in China on July 16 with registered capital of 1.1 billion yuan, according to company information website Tianyancha, making it the fourth securities firm with full foreign ownership in China.