China eyes wider opening up with QDII reform

China is taking another step in opening up the financial market with reform of the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) scheme.

[Photo: VCG]

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement Wednesday that it would work with other government entities to push QDII reform and improve the macro-prudential management of the program.

SAFE will release QDII quotas monthly on its website, it said in the statement.

The scheme allows qualified domestic investors to invest overseas and encourages two-way capital flows, according to Xie Yaxuan, an analyst with China Merchants Securities.

"Opening-up should come both ways. It does not only encourage inflows but also outflows," Xie said.

China has yet to fully liberalize its capital account, with programs such as QDII and Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) providing financial institutions with quotas in outbound and inbound investments, respectively.

"Many countries have adopted mechanisms such as QDII and QFII in the process of opening up the capital account," said Fan Yue, vice president of asset manager E Fund.

SAFE's announcement came as authorities vowed to further open China's economy at the just-concluded Boao Forum for Asia.

Among the opening-up measures, China will expand the business scope of foreign banks and impose no restrictions on the scope of joint-venture securities companies.

The opening up of the financial sector should go together with reform of the exchange rate formation mechanism and the process of advancing capital account convertibility, according to central bank governor Yi Gang.