The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has issued a public call to action, unveiling an upgraded version of its "Enhancing Quality, Efficiency, and Returns" campaign. This marks the evolution of the initiative first launched earlier this year into its "2.0" phase, signaling a new stage in the special campaign's implementation.

Building on prior practical experience, this enhanced "2.0" version further concentrates on five key areas: business development, corporate governance, information disclosure, investor returns, and social responsibility. It introduces more specific, quantifiable reference metrics, proposes numerous detailed disclosure suggestions, and provides standardized templates to guide companies step-by-step in formulating and disclosing their plans. This approach also aims to make it easier for investors to access and comprehend a company's current operational status and future priorities.

Regarding participation, the SSE encourages all listed companies on its main board to join the "2.0" campaign. It particularly recommends that constituent companies of major indices and those consistently rated 'A' for information disclosure in recent years take a leading and exemplary role. Concurrently, the initiative advocates for fostering a market ecosystem that invests in high-quality listed companies. It calls on investors to actively practice value and long-term investment philosophies, paying greater attention to companies that are compliant, of high quality, responsible, and focused on shareholder returns.

Special Campaign Upgraded to "2.0" Version

The development quality of listed companies is directly linked to the healthy functioning of the capital market and the vital interests of investors.

Since 2024, Shanghai-listed companies have responded positively to the "Enhancing Quality, Efficiency, and Returns" initiative. It is understood that approximately 80% of SSE-listed firms have actively participated and disclosed their action plans. Excluding newly listed companies, coverage is already comprehensive for index constituents such as those in the SSE 50, SSE 180, and STAR 50 indices.

Market observers note that from reviewing routine company announcements, it is evident many firms now consistently align their daily operations and major decisions with the direction of "enhancing quality, efficiency, and returns." The concepts of continuously improving operational quality, actively rewarding investors, and strengthening investor communication have gained widespread consensus on the Shanghai market.

However, it has also been observed that the action plans of some companies still fall short of investor expectations and the requirements for high-quality development. Previously, some companies' plans focused primarily on dividends and share buybacks, while others included relatively vague business plans lacking clear targets, which could easily lead to misinterpretation by the market.

Industry experts view this "2.0" upgrade as a precise response to pain points identified in earlier practice. By anchoring on core operational efficiency, refining quantifiable assessment benchmarks, and providing standardized template texts, it offers companies flexibility for autonomous policy-making while also delineating a clear, actionable path for implementation. The initial call to action was more about "broad coverage and building consensus." After this phase, the current initiative is now advancing towards "focusing on implementation and seeking tangible results."

As the subsequent special campaign unfolds, it is believed that the principles of "enhancing quality, efficiency, and returns" will be translated more rapidly from a conceptual consensus into concrete and effective operational actions. This is expected to drive more listed companies, on the foundation of strengthening their core businesses and solidifying performance, to continuously improve governance and cultivate a stronger returns consciousness. The collective effort aims to solidify the foundation for the long-term healthy development of the capital market and better serve the development of new quality productive forces and high-quality economic growth.

Focus on Enhancing Quality and Efficiency in Five Areas

The "2.0" action initiative focuses on enhancing listed companies' quality and efficiency in five key aspects.

First, enhancing operational development quality and efficiency. The initiative now places greater emphasis on value creation at the operational level. It explicitly suggests that companies select at least two core financial indicators reflecting profitability or operational quality—such as Return on Equity (ROE), gross margin, revenue/profit growth rates, or metrics like R&D progress and new product launch numbers—for inclusion in their action plans. Companies are encouraged to conduct quantitative breakdown analysis of their current profitability or operational quality status and propose actionable improvement targets and specific measures accordingly. This new content may prompt companies to confront operational weaknesses directly, anchoring quality improvement goals to more specific and clear enhancements in business quality. At the same time, the SSE's initiative also fully considers companies' individual circumstances, allowing them to select and formulate other operational indicators that better reflect their unique business characteristics for analysis, demonstrating regulatory inclusivity.

Second, enhancing corporate governance quality and efficiency. Addressing common compliance issues such as illegal guarantees, fund misappropriation, and excessively high pledge ratios, the SSE guides companies to continuously improve internal governance mechanisms that ensure all parties fulfill their responsibilities and maintain effective checks and balances. It emphasizes strengthening compliance awareness and training for "key individuals" including controlling shareholders, actual controllers, directors, and senior management, continuously improving decision-making科学性 and prudence, fully maintaining the independence of listed companies, and tangibly elevating corporate governance standards and normative operational capabilities.

Third, enhancing information disclosure quality and efficiency. Companies are guided to standardize information release mechanisms for channels not mandated by law, to guard against being actively or passively drawn into hype around trending concepts, and to establish internal accountability mechanisms for disclosure errors. They are encouraged to diversify the forms of information disclosure, actively utilizing methods like briefings, graphic reports, and short videos to continuously improve the readability and usefulness of disclosure documents.

Fourth, enhancing investor return quality and efficiency. Companies are guided to reasonably increase dividend payout ratios and the frequency of cash dividends based on their capacity ("within their means"). They are encouraged to actively implement share buybacks for cancellation and major shareholder share purchases, and to enrich investor communication formats such as earnings conference calls and "investor day" events.

Fifth, enhancing social responsibility quality and efficiency. Companies are encouraged to further improve their willingness and the quality of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) report disclosures, to identify and analyze ESG-related issues in accordance with regulations, and to objectively and truthfully reflect their practices and effectiveness in environmental, social, and governance aspects.

Notably, the SSE has concurrently developed accompanying template texts for Shanghai-listed companies to reference when formulating their new round of action plans. Specifically, these templates are structured around two main chapters: analysis of operational conditions and management's discussion and analysis of the current status regarding enhancing quality, efficiency, and returns. They guide companies to elaborate on the direction of quality and efficiency improvement across dimensions such as operational indicators, return indicators, and compliance indicators, formulating more quantifiable, executable, and assessable measures. This facilitates an upgrade in plan content from "qualitative description" to "quantitative discussion." The templates also include "helpful tips" for drafting related content, which is expected to significantly enhance the readability and effectiveness of the special action plans.