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
GOVERNMENT subsidy support for meat production will be stable even when pork prices fluctuate, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Speaking at an online press conference, Zeng Xiao'an, deputy director of the MOF's Department of Economic Development, said the government would take subsidies for piglet keepers into a long-term mechanism framework. "It does not matter whether pork prices are rising or falling, the supportive policies will be successive," said Zeng. "We will only adjust the strength of the policies based on real conditions," Zeng said when asked about the policies' time limit. To combat escalating inflation, China pledged to draw up a series of measures, including more subsidies for farmers. From July next year to the end of June in 2009, subsidies for each reproductive female piglet will be raised from 50 yuan (US$6.75) to 100 yuan, said Zeng. Also, the central government will allocate 2.5 billion yuan next year to support the