(Yicai) Oct. 29 -- At the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2025, the chairman of the Beijing Stock Exchange has presented the bourse’s key focuses and tasks for the next stage of development.

The BSE will focus on several areas in the future, including improving market functions, promoting coordinated development of investment and financing, and continuously enhancing the market product system, Lu Songbin said at the forum today.

The BSE has gathered a group of high-quality, innovative small- and medium-sized enterprises, according to Lu. There are 280 companies listed on the BSE, over 80 percent of which are SMEs, and nearly 90 percent are private firms.

To improve market functions, the BSE will continue to study and optimize its listing standards, enhance the adaptability of its listing review mechanism, and further refine the tools for mergers and acquisitions, Lu said.

Meanwhile, it will strengthen the regulatory and cultivation functions of the National Equities Exchange and Quotations, deepen the reform of the NEEQ, and improve differentiated institutional arrangements, Lu pointed out. It will also enrich the product system of its bond market by promoting the regular issuance of government bonds and expanding the functions of the credit bond market.

To promote the coordination between investment and financing, the BSE will strictly control listing qualifications, tighten regulatory oversight, and support listed companies in improving and strengthening their operations through refinancing, M&As, and equity incentives, Lu noted.

Eligible listed firms will be guided to reward investors through measures, such as dividends and share buybacks, and efforts will be made to promote the establishment of more public fund products primarily focused on investing in small- and medium-market cap stocks, according to Lu.

The BSE will continue to advance the construction of its index system, accelerate the launch of the BSE 50 exchange-traded fund, and explore the introduction of after-hours fixed-price trading to continuously improve the convenience of investment and trading, Lu added.

It will become more open, deepen international cooperation and exchanges, and steadily enhance the degree of market internationalization, he pointed out.

Editor: Futura Costaglione