Governrnent to provide financial support for “Made in China 2025” campaign

BEIJING - China is stepping up financial support for the manufacturing sector as it encourages companies to upgrade their technology and tries to channel more funding away from speculative activities into the real economy.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the three financial regulators who supervise banking, securities and insurance, have pledged to give businesses better access to bank loans, initial public offerings, and bond issuance.

They have also called on insurance companies to mobilise their vast financial resources to invest in manufacturing companies, according to joint guidelines issued on this week.

Caixin reported that the co-ordinated efforts of the five Government agencies to promote the Made in China 2025 strategy, an initiative launched in 2015 to upgrade Chinese industry, comes as authorities make a renewed push to boost investment in the real economy amid concerns that funds are being diverted into speculative activities that are leading to asset bubbles.

“The manufacturing industry is the backbone of the real economy, the main platform for technology innovation and a key area of supply-side structural reforms,” the agencies said in the document titled Guidance on Financial Support to Build a Manufacturing Power.  www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).