(Yicai) Jan. 18 -- The operator of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will continue expanding its Stock Connect program with links to the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses this year to cover more products despite the complicated market environment, according to a co-chief operating officer.

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing will join hands with the two mainland bourses and regulatory authorities to include block trade and yuan counter businesses in the trading mechanism, as well as launch RMB Treasury Bond Futures in Hong Kong, Wilfred Yiu said to Yicai during the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The Stock Connect program that allows mainland Chinese investors to buy Hong Kong-listed equities and international investors to access Mainland China's A share market was launched in 2014. Eligible ETFs have been added to this programme in recent years. Moreover, the HKEX unveiled the HKD-RMB dual counter model last June to allow offshore investors to trade RMB-denominated stocks listed in Hong Kong.

The bourse is expected to welcome new progress on the initial public offering front this year, Yiu said, adding that firms have lined up to go public after the HKEX revealed a new rule last March, targeting technology firms in emerging sectors such as robotics and semiconductors with lowered listing requirements.

Chinese assets should get hot again. International investors have taken an underweight position in Asian stocks, especially those trading in China, but the Chinese economy takes up 18 percent of the global economy, so in the long run, their asset allocation will return to a level more in line with the country's economic development, Yiu predicted.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine