Shanghai Daily: Business - shanghaidaily.com
THE China Development Bank and the Tianjin Binhai New Area signed an agreement to set up a venture capital fund to boost high-technology start-ups in the fastest-growing economic zone in north China. The Ministry of Science and Technology Website released yesterday the joint efforts to kick off the first government-backed venture capital worth two billion yuan (US$270 million) with equal contributions from the CDB and the TBNA. Pi Qiansheng, a vice-ministerial official who heads the TBNA administration, said the government funded and operated venture capital would primarily perform as a fund of funds, an investment fund that has a strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing in tangible projects. Pi said that the fund of funds will choose outstanding domestic and overseas venture capital funds, including private equity funds, to invest. The selected venture capital funds will be asked to prioritize their investment portfolio in high-technology
Shanghai Daily: Business - shanghaidaily.com
THE Shanghai housing authority yesterday put forward nine residential plots of about 810,000 square meters for bidding and another 12 plots partly for residential development, Oriental Morning Post reported today. A total of 4.5 million square meters for residential development has been provided within this year, pushing the year-round total to the highest in recent years. The city has drastically boosted the number of plots for housing projects in the past two months since the government began to hand out land for housing in September, said the report. The plots are in seven districts, including Hongkou, Yangpu, Baoshan and Fengxian, as well as in Chongming County. Nearly 50,000 housing units smaller than 90 square meters will be built in the next two years, accounting for 70 percent of the total residential properties, the report said. The authorities cleared a batch of undeveloped buildings in July and increased a 27 million-square-meter area for constructing small