BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) -- China has completed at least half of the preparations necessary for mainland residents to invest directly in the Hong Kong stock market, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing Zhu Min, vice president of the Bank of China (BOC).

'The preparations are going smoothly, but there are still many technical problems yet to be addressed,' Zhu was quoted as saying on the sidelines of the Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions hosted by the World Economic Forum in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian.
'It takes a long time to prepare new software, educate investors and train staff. However, we have no plan to delay' the launch of the scheme.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced on Aug 20 that mainland individuals would be able to directly trade in Hong Kong stocks through Bank of China branches in Tianjin, where the scheme is being trialled, amid efforts to reduce liquidity in the system and moderate the growth of China's foreign exchange reserves.
'Tianjin is the pilot city. It's hard to say if the program will expand to other cities in the future,' Zhu said, in response to reports that the scheme may be expanded to Shanghai and Shenzhen.
According to some reports, the government has held back on approving the scheme's expansion beyond Tianjin because of fears the direct investment program may take away funds from domestic stock markets or compete with the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor scheme.
'The program will not have a big impact on the sales of (QDII) products as the latter have already been given the go-ahead to invest in almost all global equity markets,' Zhu told Xinhua.
Separately, major domestic securities newspapers reported over the weekend that China Merchants Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank (other-otc: CBDP.PK - news - people ) of China are also planning to launch their own programs to facilitate trading by mainland investors in Hong Kong stocks