(Yicai) Oct. 30 -- China has set up a new fund with an initial CNY51 billion (USD7.2 billion) that central state-owned enterprises can tap to help them accelerate the development of strategic emerging industries.

The Central Enterprises Strategic Emerging Industries Development Fund was initiated by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and will be managed by China Reform Holdings, the state-owned investment holding firm announced yesterday. The fund was set up in Beijing on Oct. 27, according to information on business data platform Qichacha.

The fund will prioritize strategic emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence, aerospace, high-end equipment, and quantum technology, as well as key areas in future sectors such as energy, information, and manufacturing, supporting central SOEs to remedy industrial weaknesses, invest in frontier innovation, and sharpen their core capabilities, China Reform said.

At the launch, SASAC Deputy Director Li Zhen said the fund should adopt new positioning, methods, teams, and mechanisms, center on enabling new-quality productive forces, serve the development of SOEs’ strategic emerging industries, and better align capital with industrial and innovation chains to support optimization and structural adjustment of the state-owned economy.

China Reform plans to contribute about CNY15 billion to the fund initially. Other contributors include more than a dozen central SEOs such as China Mobile, China Petrochemical, China National Offshore Oil, and China National Petroleum, along with Beijing's Xicheng district.

The fund has an investment period of five years, which can be extended by up to two years, and a management and exit period of eight years, bringing the total to 15 years.

China Reform was named in early 2016 as a pilot state-owned capital operations company by the State Council leading group for SOE reform.

Editor: Martin Kadiev