China approves 7 more RQFII, QFII investors

BEIJING - China approved seven more foreign companies to move money into the country's capital account in April, under its program to liberalize how this account is managed, data from the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed on Wednesday.

Six companies were granted approval for the Renminbi-denominated Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program last month, taking the number of enterprises under the RQFII program to 152.

In the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program, one company was added to the list in April, bringing the total number to 281.

China's currency, the yuan, is convertible for trade purposes under the current account, while the capital account, which covers portfolio investment and borrowing, is still largely controlled by the state over concerns of abrupt capital flows in and out of the country.

To gradually open the capital account, the government introduced the QFII and RQFII programs in 2003 and 2011 respectively. They give foreign investors the right to move quotas of money into the account, to encourage controllable flows.

The RQFII program has so far been opened to countries and regions including Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Britain, Singapore, France, the Republic of Korea, Germany, Qatar, Canada, Australia and Luxembourg.

As of April 29, overseas institutions have received QFII quotas amounting to $73.62 billion, and the volume under the RQFII program totalled 363.7 billion yuan.