(Yicai Global) March 31 -- China has expanded its Qualified Domestic Limited Partner program, a trial outbound investment scheme, throughout Guangdong province to further open up its financial market.

Previously, the pilot scheme was only available to investors in five cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in southern Guangdong.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange approved the extension of the scheme to the rest of Guangdong with a quota of USD5 billion, Yicai Global learned from the regional branch of the regulator yesterday.

QDLP enables approved foreign asset managers to set up pilot funds in China and raise yuan funds from institutional investors and other sources for overseas investment, including unlisted equities, bonds and other securities abroad.

At present, investors in most parts of the country have to go through channels such as the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor scheme, the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect in order to invest in overseas securities markets.

In Shanghai, the first QDLP pilot city, about 30 global asset management firms have been approved to use this mechanism for overseas investment, including the first approved hedge fund managers Oaktree Capital and Man Group.

At the end of November, a SAFE official revealed that the QDLP scheme would be expanded to China’s southern island province of Hainan and the southwestern city of Chongqing.

Editor: Tom Litting