Jiading private equity fund to boost the area's strengths

A private equity fund which aims to expand its scale to 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) within the next three years was set up on Saturday in Jiading District.

The PE fund, jointly founded by Jiading, Wenzhou, Taicang and Kunshan from neighboring Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces as well as SAIC Motor Group, is one of the district’s attempts to further promote the integration of the Yangzte River Delta.

“Technology and manufacturing are the two strengths of Jiading,” said Zhang Xi, party secretary of the district. “With the new fund, we are confident we can attract more investment to the district.”

The fund will focus on enterprises with cutting edge technologies, such as biological medicine and advanced manufacture, which aim at expanding in the delta region, to help them build sustainable operations for good industrial upgrading.

Jiading is known for its automobile industry. SAIC Motors, the leading enterprise in car manufacture, is also one of the founders of the fund. Chen Zhixin, president of the company, said that with the fund, traditional enterprises like SAIC Motors can find more ways to embrace cutting edge technology.

“Driverless technology and new energy automobiles are the future direction of automobile industry,” said Chen. “We are also keen to work with other enterprises with such technologies.”