China's top securities regulator on Saturday announced that the country would introduce a series of innovative mechanisms to advance the development of the sci-tech innovation board, also known as the STAR market.

Policies will be rolled out to bring stocks on the STAR board tradable under the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program, introduce the market maker system, and facilitate the transfer of old stocks during initial public offerings (IPOs), Yi Huiman, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said at the Lujiazui Forum on Thursday.

The country will unveil measures for the management of refinancing on the STAR board, and promote a rapid microfinance system to help enterprises, with core technologies, utilize the capital market for further growth, said Yi.

He said the country will push forward its high-level, two-way opening-up with supporting measures, including improving mechanisms in the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program, and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect program.

The opening of China's capital market is accelerating instead of slowing down, amid the COVID-19 epidemic, Yi said, citing reasons such as further reform of the ChiNext stock market, China's Nasdaq-style board for growth enterprises, and its pilot registration-based IPO system.

The new board is sending an important message on how China's financial service sector can better serve the real economy, Zhu Ning from the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance commented said at the forum.

"The STAR board allows high tech companies which have not yet shown profits to list in China… which is very encouraging to entrepreneurial activities and for high tech companies," Zhu said. 

After the return of internet giants like Alibaba, JD.com and Netease to list in Hong Kong, more tech companies see an increasing opportunity. Zhu said high tech companies would not have to go overseas to list their shares and Chinese investors will benefit from investing in early-stage companies.

Zhu also said China's asset management industry is growing well. With the ongoing financial reform, the sector has put increased emphasis on long-term investment as well as qualified institutional investors, and opening to international players has also become a key trend.

(With inputs from Xinhua)