UPDATE 1-China to set up national venture capital guidance fund, state planner says

China will set up a government-backed fund in the near future that will mobilize 1 trillion yuan ($138.01 billion) from social capital to support technology startups, Zheng Shanjie, the head of China's state planner, said on Thursday. The "national venture capital guidance fund" - an investment vehicle set up as public-private partnership - would focus on "hard technology", Zheng told a news conference, referring to areas such as semiconductors and renewable energy.

China will set up a government-backed fund in the near future that will mobilize 1 trillion yuan ($138.01 billion) from social capital to support technology startups, Zheng Shanjie, the head of China's state planner, said on Thursday.

The "national venture capital guidance fund" - an investment vehicle set up as public-private partnership - would focus on "hard technology", Zheng told a news conference, referring to areas such as semiconductors and renewable energy. The fund, will maintain long-term investment cycles, increasing tolerance for risk, and invest in technology enterprises through market-based approaches, the director of the National Development and Reform Commission said.

Zheng and other officials spoke to the media a day after Premier Li Qiang told lawmakers Beijing aimed to keep the tariff-hit economy growing at a roughly 5% rate this year. China said on Wednesday it would boost support for the application of artificial intelligence (AI) models and the development of venture capital investment, in a bid to foster more technology breakthroughs and become more self-reliant.

The fund will focus on cutting-edge fields such as AI, quantum technology, and hydrogen energy storage and will invest in seed-stage and start-up companies through market-oriented methods, state media CCTV reported on Thursday. ($1 = 7.2437 Chinese yuan renminbi)