NewBeijing backs away from plans for new trading board geared towards emerging industries

In a surprise move that reflects Beijing’s capricious policymaking on the stock market, the central government appears to have shelved a plan to create a high-profile new board for emerging industries, just three months after it received a go-ahead from Premier Li Keqiang.

In an amended version for the 13th five-year plan, the mainland’s blueprint for economic and social development in 2016-2020, the attempt to launch the board was deleted, the Beijing Evening News reported Tuesday.

The creation of the board was mentioned in the draft plan released on March 5 when the annual session of the National People’s Congress unveiled its curtain.

On December 23, 2015, the State Council gave a green light to the Shanghai Stock Exchange to establish the new board after a meeting chaired by the premier, and it was highly expected that it would debut this year.

The new board which will have a lower listing threshold than the main board is part of the leadership’s strategy of bolstering technological innovation and supporting high-growth companies in the industries of IT, new energy and biotechnology.

Two sources close to the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said the changes made in the five-year plan were a sign that the leadership would shift focus from reforms to risk-control and stabilisation.