The Chinese government is moving closer to allowing foreign companies to sell shares in mainland China for the first time as part of a strategy approved this year to try to develop Shanghai into an international financial centre.

Plans to allow foreign listings have been proposed repeatedly in the past decade but have all been cancelled over fears that a flood of new shares would depress prices, or because of concerns that opening up the market would attract unwanted scrutiny of the government's tight control over the listing process.

However, moves by China's top leaders to develop Shanghai, the country's commercial capital, into an international centre have provided impetus for a long-standing plan to allow foreign companies to list on mainland bourses.