China's foreign exchange authority has awarded additional investment quotas totaling 325 million U.S. dollars to two qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII).

The two QFIIs are Nikko Asset Management Co. Ltd and BNP Paribas, which received investment quotas of 200 million dollars and 125 million dollars respectively from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

Nikko Asset Management Co. Ltd is one of the three major asset management institutions in Japan, and BNP Paribas is one of the largest banks in Europe.

The government launched the QFII pilot program in 2003, allowing foreign institutional investors such as the UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Citigroup Global Markets Limited to engage in the securities business on the Chinese mainland, according to Tuesday's China Securities Journal.

Since then, the regulator has been making efforts to improve rules and regulations in a bid to open the stock market wider to foreign investment.

This year, the SAFE has awarded investment quotas totaling 1.25 billion U.S. dollars to QFIIs. To date, 40 foreign investment institutions have been approved as QFIIs.

Source: Xinhua