China drafts new rules to guide, evaluate government investment funds

China's National Development and Reform Commission announced on Wednesday that it is soliciting public opinions on draft plans to guide and evaluate government investment funds, aiming to better leverage their role in serving national strategies, boosting industrial upgrading, and fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.

The draft plan on guiding government investment funds is designed to provide robust support for major national strategies, key sectors, and areas where market mechanisms fall short. It also seeks to facilitate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, back the growth of competitive and distinctive industries, and accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces.

Government investment funds are required to channel investments into sectors aligned with the encouraged industries specified in national industrial catalogs. The plan also emphasizes the need to maintain differentiated investment focuses between national and local funds, while strengthening coordination to attract more social capital and create synergistic effects.

The draft plan on evaluating government investment funds clarifies their role in integrating market forces with government oversight, as well as supporting state-encouraged sectors and restricting regulated ones.

As defined in the draft, national funds are government investment funds approved by the State Council and capitalized by central government departments and their affiliates. Local funds are those set up with government capital from provincial or lower-level governments, their departments, or affiliates.