IPOs can't happen too soon

As China's financial services sector, and not just its IPO approval process, moves toward a culture of openness and market orientation, we can be sure that only gradual movement will lead to any smooth, sustainable transition.

It behooves the authorities, therefore, to restart China's IPO market carefully, cautiously and avoid at all costs any contagious outbreak of investor and IPO applications frenzy.

Careful selection of the first IPO candidate to hit the market since October 2012 is key to rebuilding market confidence.

What better than an extremely well-known and financially successful Chinese company, and one that plans to float outside the Chinese mainland, possibly in the United States?

There can be no better advertisement of any new, transparent, secure IPO process in China than the snatching of just such a company from the jaws of New York or London.

And of course Alibaba Group Holding Ltd fits the bill perfectly. The time is certainly right for this e-commerce giant to be listed and the Chinese public, who have put Alibaba on the global map, wouldn't hesitate to invest in this symbol of China's modernization.

Far from the IPO floodgates opening up, we will witness the Chinese authorities cherry-picking the ripest and readiest Chinese companies for IPOs in 2014. Quality and not quantity will characterize China's IPO market from now on.

Alibaba's IPO in Shanghai rather than New York will signal real progress in the maturity of China's financial sector. Let's hope it happens and soon.

The author is a visiting professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and a senior lecturer on marketing at Southampton Solent University's School of Business.