BEIJING -- China's securities authorities announced Tuesday that it has expanded its renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) pilot program by increasing the investment quota by 50 billion yuan ($7.94 billion) from the previous 20 billion yuan.

China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement on its website that it has also expanded the investment quota of Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) by $50 billion.

The RQFII mechanism, which was launched in December 2011 to widen investment channels for overseas yuan funds on the Chinese mainland, allows qualified investors to invest yuan-based funds raised in Hong Kong in the mainland securities market within a permitted quota.

The CSRC will allow institutions under the RQFII program to issue exchange-traded funds (ETFs) made up of A-shares and consider further expanding the scale of the pilot scheme, range of institutions and investment proportion.

China's foreign exchange regulator kicked off the RQFII trial scheme in December 2011 with an initial quota of 20 billion yuan, aiming to facilitate the back flow of the yuan and promote the internationalization of the currency.

Launched in 2002, the QFII program has so far allowed overseas investors to make investments in China's stock markets under a preset investment quota of $30 billion. To date, China has granted 158 QFIIs from 23 countries and regions, according to the CSRC.

China will further facilitate the investment and operation of the QFII program to attract more long-term overseas funds to the domestic capital market, said the CSRC statement.