China's forex regulator announced Monday that the total quota of the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program had doubled to 300 billion U.S. dollars.

The move aims to meet demand from overseas investors to expand investment in China's capital market, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement.

The QFII program is the earliest and most important arrangement for opening up the country's capital market, the statement said.

Introduced in 2003, the scheme allows overseas institutional investors to move money into China's capital account to encourage controlled flows.