New Third Board companies get a push to ChiNext

China is encouraging companies listed on the New Third Board to go public via the ChiNext board, although there may be difficulties in implementation, said experts.

The National Equities Exchange and Quotations, or the New Third Board, is China's third national equity exchange. It is popular among micro-, small- and medium-sized companies. As at Feb 21, 10,675 companies were listed on it.

Liu Shiyu, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said in February that the New Third Board should play the role as "soil" and "nursery" to help qualified companies listed on the board to go public on the A-share market.