China state firms launch $1.8 bln fund

A group of 51 enterprises run by China’s central government has launched a fund to invest in the country’s poorest regions, as part of a state plan to use market forces in the fight against poverty.

The fund starts at 12.2 billion yuan ($1.83 billion) but firms including the Three Gorges Project Corporation, the State Grid Corporation and the State Development and Investment Corporation will gradually increase it to 100 billion yuan, the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said on Monday on its website (http://www.sasac.gov.cn).

According to the official Xinhua news agency, 70 million people still live on less than 2,300 yuan per year, which is China’s official poverty line. China has said it aims to reduce that number by at least 10 million annually, starting this year.

Xinhua said the fund will invest in resources, construct industrial parks and promote urbanisation in China’s poorest regions. It said priority regions included ethnic minority and border areas as well as old “revolutionary bases” of the Chinese Communist Party.

In a separate document published on Tuesday, China’s cabinet said it would launch a pilot programme at the end of the year to develop hydropower and mineral resources in some of the most poverty-stricken regions.

It said the programme would allocate stakes in hydropower and mine projects to rural collectives to give impoverished communities a bigger share of the profits. (RTRS)