BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Firms on China's National Equities Exchange and Quotation (NEEQ), also known as the "new third board, saw steady revenue growth in 2017.

The NEEQ is a share transfer system designed for small and medium-sized companies to increase financing. It now has 11,367 listed firms.

A total of 10,764 NEEQ-listed firms have disclosed their 2017 financial performances, making 1.98 trillion yuan (about 312 billion U.S. dollars) in combined revenue, up 21.21 percent. Their total net profits reached 115.48 billion yuan, up 14.69 percent.

Combined R&D expenditure of 8,586 firms on the board totaled 60.73 billion yuan in 2017, up 9.96 percent year on year.

There is still much room for cutting indirect financing cost for NEEQ-listed firms, as many reported rising expenses.