"The commission would continue the final preparations before officially introducing the stock index futures," Shang said at the 2007 China Financial Derivatives Conference held in Beijing.

    The development of financial derivatives can improve the country's financial efficiency and help the country better handle financial risks," Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, told the conference, stressing the development should go in a "steady way".

    Cheng said the stock index futures is for the time being the one most ready for launch.

    He said the introduction of the stock index futures would help boost the smooth development of China's stock market by enabling investors to profit from their anticipation of a share price fall.

    However, the threshold for investment in the stock index futures should be set at a relatively higher level to avoid irrational investors, and the threshold could be lowered when the market becomes mature, Cheng said.

    The country's new regulations on futures trading came into effect in April, extending its coverage from commodities futures trading to financial futures and option contract trading.

    This laid a legal foundation for the introduction of the stock index futures, foreign exchange futures and option and other financial derivatives, which will provide financial institutions with badly-needed tools to hedge risks.

    Simulation trading was started in October last year to test the trading system at the Shanghai-based China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFE), which was inaugurated in September 2006 to become the country's first financial derivatives exchange.

    Shang said the commission will continue providing training and risk-control education for institutional investors and managers that are interested in the stock index futures.

    The CSRC offered a training course on stock index futures transaction regulations in southwestern China's Guizhou Province between September 27-28, with more than 90 industry participants.

    Cheng suggested that the country's institutions of higher learning should train more Financial MBA (FMBA) graduates for the emerging domestic financial derivatives market.

    Cheng said the country might introduce the interest rate futures with the gradual marketization of the country's interest rates, which means market-determined interest rates, rather than freely floating rates.

    The launch of the foreign exchange futures would need still longer time, Cheng said.

    The country's futures market, comprising Shanghai Futures Exchange, Dalian Commodity Exchange and Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange and CFFE, turned over a record 21 trillion yuan (2.81 trillion U.S. dollars) last year.