Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange (SUAEE) Thursday unveiled a batch of more than 180 technology stock exchange projects to attract both domestic and overseas investors.

One highlight of this announcement is the launch of some 106 technology projects patented in Britain, which involve areas like information technology, electronics, biomedical products and power machinery.

As part of the UN Technological Information Promotion System (TIPS), the overseas projects are put on the SUAEE's exchange platform with the aim of finding investors, especially domestic ones.

While the launch of such a wide array of projects has rarely been seen in the history of Shanghai's technology stock exchange market, it is being regarded as a signal of growing overseas recognition of China's market potential as well as the successful operation of local assets and the equity market, officials said.

"Chinese enterprises need to absorb overseas advanced technologies to upgrade their core competitive edge and, as we have observed, they now have strong motivation to do so," said Huang Dawei, vice-president of the SUAEE.

The inflow of foreign technology projects also points to the allure of China's market potential, he said.

Another 78 domestic projects are also being launched to attract investors for commercialization.

Also, some state-owned companies like Shanghai Chemical Plant Co Ltd have launched projects that target not only capital inflow but also a fundamental change in company equity structure.

These activities seem to indicate a growing active assets and equity exchange market, especially after the establishment of the SUAEE last December, which was the result of a merger of three small-scale local exchanges.

Statistics from the SUAEE show that some 930 equity deals, valued at 33.6 billion yuan (US$4.06 billion), have so far been sealed since the exchange was set up.

Among these, more than 320 are technical exchange deals, valued at 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion), posting over 43 percent and 37 percent growth respectively on a yearly basis, officials with the SUAEE said.

(China Daily March 19, 2004)