China's securities regulators will work to expand the Stock Connect scheme that links the mainland and Hong Kong markets, said a senior official on Friday.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) plans to include more eligible Hong Kong primary-listed foreign companies and more listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges in the Stock Connect program, said Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the CSRC at a forum during the ongoing 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Service.

The Stock Connect is a cross-boundary investment channel that connects the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The scheme helps investors in one market to trade shares in others.

Chinese tech conglomerate Alibaba announced in July that it was seeking a primary listing in Hong Kong, paving the way for a Stock Connect application.

Fang said that China will take more measures to further open its capital markets, the second largest in the world, according to a text of his speech released by Securities Times, an official CSRC-affiliated media.

Against the background of the generally sluggish performance in major global markets, Fang said Chinese markets continued to rank first in the world in terms of amount, as well as the quality of listings. In the first seven months of 2022, 178 companies debuted on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, raising a total of 345.9 billion yuan ($50.1 billion), he said.

Foreign investments in China's capital market have proven to be resilient, said Fang. From January to August this year, the net inflow of foreign capital into A-shares markets through the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Connect hit 63.2 billion yuan.

China and the U.S. signed an audit oversight cooperation agreement on August 26, taking an important step to clear the obstacles that have existed for many years impeding Chinese companies to go public in the U.S., said Fang.

Moving forward, the CSRC will implement the agreement and build a predictable international regulatory environment for further high-level opening-up of China's capital market, he added.