(Yicai Global) March 12 -- Chinese brokerages, including Huachuang Securities, have started to prepare for the upcoming science and technology innovation board by hiring new talent. 

Huachuang Securities posted a job ad seeking an equity investment director to develop a team that handles business regarding the new sci-tech innovation board, with an annual salary ranging from CNY300,000 to CNY600,000 (USD44,600 up). Another company offered up to CNY1 million (USD148,670) for a general manager with nearly similar duties. This is over 34 times Shanghai's minimum salary. 

The sci-tech innovation board aims to make it easier for Chinese technology startups to go public in Shanghai and the new market is deemed to be launched in the first half of this year. 

Agencies that wish to serve listed companies on the new board must have knowledge about the new economy and new technologies, Huang Lichong, the co-founder of Synergy Solution Management Group, told Yicai Global.

Insiders at many brokerages and investment banks said that they have not established independent bureaus for the upcoming board. There is no great difference between the existent services in these firms and those that the new board will require, a managing director from an investment bank told Yicai Global.

CSC Financial has been the first to get the go-ahead to trade on the board since March 8. More than 10 brokerages, including Haitong Securities, Guotai Junan Securities, CITIC Securities and China Galaxy Securities, have started taking in applications from investors to open accounts as of yesterday. Some of them have advertised that it takes only from one to three minutes to get set up.

The number of investors that have opened related trading accounts has risen to 30,000, Guosen Securities told Yicai Global yesterday. The application procedure involves a risk assessment test but over 10,000 individual or institutional clients have succeeded in getting access in less than 10 hours since March 9. Traders also need to prove more than two years of investment experience and a daily account balance of more than CNY500,000 (USD74,600) on average.

Editor: Emmi Laine