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By Yin Lei

More detailed rules for China's upcoming Sci-Tech Innovation Board and pilot registration-based initial public offering (IPO) system are now in the making, according to participants in a number of recently-held seminars.

For the past three days, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) held nine seminars across China on its six draft rules for the new board and its pilot IPO system.

These draft rules, open for public consultation from Jan. 30 to Feb. 20, govern a wide range of issues such as IPO reviews, listing qualifications, and share trading.

At these seminars, 113 securities brokerages, 13 fund management companies, 24 venture capital entities, five asset management companies overseeing insurance investments, six law firms and four auditing institutions voiced their feedback on subjects concerning stock underwriting, listing threshold, trading, regulatory practices, broker accountability as well as legal and judicial issues.

The more detailed rules for the new board and pilot public offering system are in the making too, e.g. acceptance procedure, review standard, accounting principle and investor suitability, said a report of Shanghai Securities News on Feb. 17 quoting participants in these seminars, an indication that the Sci-Tech Innovation Board will enter an operational stage.

If the consultation goes smoothly, applications to list at the new board can be accepted in March or April, according to analysts' forecast.

These applications will be reviewed by the SSE on the applicants' listing qualifications and those passed will register with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the country's securities watchdog, according to a guideline issued by the CSRC in January.