The requirements appear even tougher, when some SI signed a non-disclosure agreement with their clients, meaning they are not allowed to disclose documents of these transactions and include those deals for the application, Chiu said.

In addition, as the applications are written in Chinese and the business terms used are often different between mainland China and Hong Kong, there are multiple adjustments before the actual applications can be sent.

Dilemma await to be solved

"[Applying for CISIQ] is not as easy as everyone expected," said Thomas Wan, managing director of Jardine OneSolution (JOS) China. The company has more than five years of history in China, and is planning to file their CISIQ application in the next two months.

One of the major hesitations for JOS is the dilemma that CISIQ created, said Wan. According to MII, only Hong Kong-registered companies can apply for the qualification. Yet, to participate in any form of commercial activities in China, a company needs to have a separate entity registered within China. As a result, even if a Hong Kong-registered company is certified, it is not allowed to bid for any projects in China, private or public.