China's 'new third board' firms see steady 2017 revenue growth

BEIJING - Firms on China's National Equities Exchange and Quotation (NEEQ), also known as the "new third board", saw steady revenue growth in 2017.

The NEEQ is a share transfer system designed for small and medium-sized companies to increase financing. It now has 11,367 listed firms.

A total of 10,764 NEEQ-listed firms have disclosed their 2017 financial performances, making 1.98 trillion yuan ($312 billion) in combined revenue, up 21.21 percent. Their total net profits reached 115.48 billion yuan, up 14.69 percent.

Combined R&D expenditure of 8,586 firms on the board totaled 60.73 billion yuan in 2017, up 9.96 percent year-on-year.

There is still much room for cutting indirect financing cost for NEEQ-listed firms, as many reported rising expenses.