THE approved quotas of the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) program, which allows Chinese investors to access foreign assets, had reached US$154 billion as of Tuesday, said the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). The QDII quotas were granted to 174 financial institutions, including banks, securities firms, insurers and trust companies, according to a statement on the official website of the SAFE. Since China implemented the QDII program in 2006, the country has gradually normalized and accelerated the issuance of QDII quotas. In June this year, the SAFE further expanded quotas under the QDII program to meet domestic investors’ soaring demand. China has yet to fully liberalize its capital account, with programs such as the QDII and Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) providing financial institutions with quotas for outbound and inbound investment, respectively. Amid efforts to further open up the financial market, China last year scrapped quotas on the U.S. dollar-denominated QFII program and its yuan-denominated sibling, RQFII, which further streamlined the procedures for foreign institutional investors. (Xinhua) | 