SHANGHAI -- State-owned China Reform Holdings Corporation has teamed up with the country's ministry of industry and information technology to set up a 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) investment fund to facilitate the development of the security industry.
The partnership was forged at the 2019 China Safety Industry Fund Conference on Wednesday, according to a media statement.
Of the total funds, nearly 20 billion yuan will be allocated in the first phase of investment in the physical security industry, touted as a sunrise sector. Growing urbanization in key infrastructure sectors coupled with a retail boom has triggered demand in China for private security services, including surveillance systems and alarms.
Given that the ministry of industry plays a significant role in the security sector, it will lead government input in areas such as security industry planning, policy and regulation management, in order to drive growth.
The security industry has become a new engine for economic growth and development. The latest technology played a role in maintaining security in manufacturing and in helping to prevent disaster, said Wang Zhijun, vice minister of industry and information technology, in the statement. "The combination of intelligent equipment, cloud services and insurance [will] drive the industry forward....it is necessary to accelerate security technology," he added.
The state fund aims to build new strategic partnerships between authorities and enterprises, helping them reform the security industry through new technology. Going forward, it plans to establish an innovation center on national security equipment manufacturing and industrial zones.
China Reform Holdings, founded in 2010, is a state-owned fund manager that has 700 billion yuan in assets under management. It has five fully-owned funds aimed at transforming and nurturing new economy sectors.
Globally, security is critical for all sectors, including infrastructure, airports, railways and ports and retail.
In China, the ministry of industry together with the ministry of emergency management has partnered with Chinese insurer Ping An Group to enforce insurance assistance for security-related issues.
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