LHASA - A pharmaceutical company in southwest China's Tibet autonomous region went public Tuesday, the 11th in the underdeveloped plateau region.

The Xizang Haisco Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd started trading on the SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) Board on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with 40.1 million shares issued at a price of 20 yuan ($3.17) per share.

The stocks opened at 17.5 yuan and closed 4.9 percent lower at 19.02 yuan Tuesday.

Haisco, based in Tibet's Shannan prefecture, was founded on Aug 26 in 2005 with the name of "Xizang Kangxin Pharmaceutical Co Ltd," and it was changed to the present company name on March 24, 2010.

Its products mainly include high-end parenteral nutrition medicine, hepatic and cholalic disease medicine and anti-infection medicine.

Due to the special geographical environment and historical reasons, Tibet's economy has long lagged behind other regions of China and its number of listed companies has been limited.

In 1995, The Tibet Pearl Star Co Ltd went public as the first listed company in the region.

Local government and securities regulatory authorities have said they would encourage more local companies to be listed and will give them support in this regard.

"That is an important job for us in the next few years," said Dorje Tsering, vice chairman of the Tibet regional government.