Chinese mainland and Hong Kong regulators on Tuesday gave the green light to a long-anticipated cross-border trading link that makes the mainland's $9.5 trillion bond market more accessible to overseas investors.

The trading platform, called Bond Connect, would operate alongside the two existing cross-border Stock Connect programs between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, in a sign of the nation's determination to make its capital market more global.

According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and People's Bank of China, the program will start with "northbound trading", allowing international and Hong Kong investors to trade onshore bonds in the initial phase.