A view of the Beijing Stock Exchange.

During this year's Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, a co-organizer of the event, will roll out four key activities, according to Wang Li, deputy director of the commission's general office.

Among them, a main forum themed "Fostering World-Class Investment Institutions, Advancing High-Quality Development of the Capital Market, and Sharing New Opportunities in Investing in China" will be held on Wednesday.

The agenda will feature keynote addresses and speeches, alongside two roundtable sessions. Experts from well-known domestic and overseas industry institutions will be invited to conduct in-depth discussions on industrial empowerment, investment trends, compliance-driven development and international cooperation.

The commission's technology department will host a sub-forum under the FinTech Conference banner. It will focus on practices and regulatory frameworks for integrating artificial intelligence into the capital market, as well as emerging trends of AI-fueled digital transformation across the sector.

In addition, the Beijing Stock Exchange will stage a parallel forum. Discussions will center on boosting capital market resilience and vitality, global practices of capital markets in supporting sci-tech innovation, and how the BSE empowers innovative growth among small and medium-sized enterprises. A suite of strategic cooperation outcomes will also be revealed at the gathering.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the BSE's launch. Establishing the bourse as a primary platform for innovative SMEs constitutes a major strategic decision by China to foster a new development paradigm and deliver high-quality growth.

Over the past five years, the commission has pushed forward the market's high-quality development, and the BSE has operated safely and stably, with its core functions fully exercised, delivering progress in market-building.

For example, in supporting SMEs' innovative growth, the BSE has stayed true to its core mandate. Taking into account the SMEs' diverse business profiles and differing development stages, it has put in place multifaceted listing criteria that enable numerous high-quality SMEs to access public capital markets.

By the end of September, 348 companies were listed on the BSE. More than 60 percent of them are national-level specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative enterprises, active in cutting-edge niches across multiple industries.

To bolster market vitality and resilience, the BSE has advanced coordinated development across both the financing and investment ends. The number of qualified investors has hit nearly 11.7 million, more than triple since the bourse opened. Over 3,000 public funds hold BSE-listed equities, and institutional investors' trading share has risen from 9 percent at inception to 24 percent.

The BSE has kept refining the development ecosystem for SMEs. Interministerial coordination has been enhanced to improve the tiered cultivation system for specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative enterprises.

Cooperation with financial institutions has deepened through customized service packages including special credit facilities and tailored credit-granting procedures, leveraging the complementary strengths of direct and indirect financing.

Also, greater alignment with venture-capital firms has been achieved, with 90 percent of BSE-listed enterprises backed by such firms. This helps cultivate a virtuous venture-capital cycle spanning fundraising, investment, management and exit.

Wang noted that moving ahead, guided by the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), the commission will act within the broader framework of multitiered capital market development. It will pursue integrated high-quality development of the BSE and the National Equities Exchange and Quotations, and explore institutional arrangements better calibrated to innovative SMEs' needs.

It will advance reform and innovation, expand market product offerings, and strengthen capital market functions. These efforts will provide robust support for building a financially powerful nation and sustaining high-quality economic growth.