"We need a huge amount of funding to build the infrastructure, expand production, and invest in research and development. We all know that developing high-tech equipment requires funding in billions of yuan," said Yin Zhihao, chairman and CEO of AMEC. The company is now the first micro-processing equipment maker on the board whose market capitalization exceeds $14 billion.

Setting up the new tech board has also paved the way for the SSE's decision to adjust its benchmark index by increasing the weight of high-tech industries in the first overhaul over the past 30 years aimed at aligning the SSE Composite Index to the S&P500.

Moreover, the launch of the new board represented a decisive boost in the government's declared goal of making Shanghai a world-class international finance and trading hub by engaging in a race to overcome leading financial centers such as London and New York.

The bourse's 30 years of opening-up

The bourse has stayed in close touch with exchanges around the world, as it has signed memorandums of cooperation with 50 overseas exchanges. Its international access includes QFII/RQFII scheme, stock connection with Hong Kong and London, and ETF connectivity.

The listing of the first B-share on the exchange in 1992 marked the availability of B-share trading as a means for foreign investors to enter the capital markets in the Chinese mainland.

H-share IPO on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong by the SSE-listed Tsingtao Brewery in 1993, for the first time, opened up the path for Chinese enterprises to go public in Hong Kong.

In the wake of China's admission to WTO in 2002, with the establishment and development of QFII and QDII schemes, the exchange has been providing services for domestic and foreign institutional investors, serving as a bridge between China and international markets.

QFII scheme allows international investors to directly invest in domestic financial products within certain quota limits, while QDII allows domestic investors to invest in offshore securities. RQFII scheme, introduced in late 2011, allows international investors to invest using offshore RMB.

The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect was officially launched in 2014 to achieve two-way connectivity, allowing qualified mainland Chinese investors to access certain Hong Kong shares and Hong Kong and international investors to trade certain A-shares.

In October 2018, Qingdao Haier was listed on the D-share market of the Frankfurt-based CEINEX, signaling the official launch of the D-share market and representing a breakthrough for China in building an offshore market in Europe for Chinese blue-chips.

Launched in 2019, the Shanghai-London Stock Connect established a two-way depository receipt listing mechanism whereby Chinese Depository Receipts issued by UK corporates can be listed on the SSE, and Global Depository Receipts issued by Chinese corporates can be listed on London Stock Exchange.

The China-Japan ETF Connectivity is a scheme launched in 2019 for creating ETFs that link the ETF markets of the SSE and Tokyo Stock Exchange. Before that, the first ETF–SSE 50 ETF was listed in 2003, and the first Cross-Border ETF was listed in 2012.

The exchange has become increasingly influential in international organizations, as the chairman of the SSE elected chairman of the World Federation of Exchanges on September 7, 2017, the first chairman of Chinese mainland exchange to hold the leading position.

China's A-shares was included in MSCI Indexes in May 2018, and it was included in FTSE Russell GEIS in June 2019.