China says MSCI decision will not derail market reforms

BEIJING — China's securities regulator Friday vowed to stick to capital market reforms regardless of whether the country's A-shares will be included in an international benchmark index.

After delaying for three years, global equity index provider MSCI will decide next week whether to include a number of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, one of its most traded indexes.

"With or without the inclusion, China's stock market, and our capital market as a whole, will not alter its direction of reform towards market-oriented and law-governed development," said Zhang Xiaojun, a spokesperson for the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

"The pace of reform and opening up will not be changed as a result of the decision, either," he told a press conference.

Zhang said China welcomes an inclusion, noting that any emerging markets stock index without Chinese shares is incomplete.

The MSCI announced in June 2016 that it would delay the inclusion of Chinese A-shares in its emerging markets index for the third time, saying it would like to see further improvements in the accessibility of the A-shares market.