Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has been approved by the main Chinese financial regulator to launch on December 5 its second trading link with the Chinese mainland, Shenzhen Stock Connect.

HKEx and the Chinese stock market said in 2015 they were working on a share trading link between Hong Kong and Shenzhen but the launch date was unclear until HKEx confirmed the December 5 launch plan in a statement on Friday.

"We're ready for another milestone in our mutual market access initiative. Shenzhen Connect will open up another Mainland market for international investors, give investors on both sides of the boundary more choices and enhance access to the Mainland’s stock market through our market and to our market through the Mainland market," said HKEX chief executive Charles Li. 

The Shenzhen Stock Connect provides a means for members of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Mainland China to trade certain Hong Kong listed stocks and for international investors with Hong Kong Brokerage accounts to trade China. The new stock connect program will be open to existing clients of both exchanges.

Modelled after the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, which went live in November 2014, the program will launch with only A shares traded in Chinese renminbi. 

Other product types will not be included but an information book said Chinese and Hong Kong regulators have agreed to include exchange traded funds (ETFs) "after the Shenzhen Stock Connect has been in operation for a period of time".

When the trading link was originally proposed, the exchange group said the Stock Connect trading link would be rolled out to more Chinese exchanges and across asset classes, helping to liberalise the renminbi and enhance international access to China.

Earlier this month, a paper by consultancy Oliver Wyman looked at the gradual opening up of the vast domestic Chinese market and argued smaller firms could look to partner with larger players to tap their technology to access the Stock Connect trading links between Hong Kong and China.