China to set up 3rd bourse within the year - report

BEIJING, Mar 10 (Reuters) China plans to set up the country's third stock exchange in the booming northern city of Tianjin within the year but the project still needs cabinet approval, the China Daily reported on Saturday.

The over-the-counter bourse would handle mainly equity transactions of unlisted public companies, the report quoted Pi Qiansheng, director of the Administrative Committee of the Binhai New Area, as saying.

China has been trying to transform Binhai, centred on the port city of Tianjin, into a new economic backbone to fuel growth in the north of the country, and the area has become a designated zone for experimenting with reforms.

''It is a very important attempt to diversity property rights and capital,'' Pi said of the exchange.

The exchange was meant to be supplementary to China's current capital market and give more attention to companies that focus on scientific innovation, the report said.

Beijing approved bourses in China's financial centre of Shanghai <.ssec> and Shenzhen <.szsc>, a special economic zone in the south, to build the country's first two stock exchanges in 1990 and there are now more than 1,400 listed companies on the two bourses.

A Tianjin official said last year he hoped an exchange in the city could be like the Nasdaq , focused on technology-related companies.

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