File photo: Xinhua

China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), also known as the "new third board," has seen a turnover of 12.4 billion yuan (about 1.8 billion US dollars) since the beginning of this year, according to the exchange.

From Feb. 17 to 21, turnover on the board reached 1.6 billion yuan, up more than 10 percent from the previous week.

As of Friday, a total of 8,826 companies had been listed on the NEEQ.

Launched in 2013, the new third board is the third national equity trading bourse after the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It is designed for innovative, start-up and high-growth micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises.

China has outlined a series of reforms to better orient the NEEQ to the needs and features of small enterprises and support high-quality growth of the real economy.