Guidelines eyeing enhancing technology investment

A customer interacts with an embodied intelligent robot at a robot store of EngineAI Robotics Technology Co Ltd in Futian district of Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, Jan 15, 2026. [Photo/Xinhua]

China has stepped up efforts to channel more long-term capital into cutting-edge industries, rolling out fresh measures to ease financing for technology enterprises and strengthen financial support for homegrown innovation.

On Monday, authorities issued guidelines on accelerating the high-quality development of technology insurance, aiming to build a mechanism better aligned with the needs of scientific and technological innovation. The move is designed to fast-track the creation of an insurance system that supports the entire innovation chain — from early-stage research to commercialization.

Under the new framework, China will work to establish a comprehensive range of insurance products and services covering the full life cycle of innovation, increase backing for major national science and technology projects as well as technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, and broaden insurance coverage in key areas and critical links of technological development.

Industry experts said the policy direction underscores the growing role of financial capital in advancing high-level technological self-reliance and strength.

They said insurance capital still has significant room to expand its support for technological innovation.

By the end of 2025, the balance of fund utilization in the insurance industry reached 38.48 trillion yuan ($5.57 trillion). Of this total, property and life insurers had invested a combined 8.54 trillion yuan in equities, securities investment funds and long-term equity investments, accounting for about 22 percent, said the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

Regulators have previously introduced solvency-related policies to support insurance funds' investment in technological innovation. The release of the new guidelines will help ensure these policies are effectively implemented, ease insurers' concerns about investing in technology companies and inject more stable and long-term financial support into the sector, said Long Ge, an insurance industry expert specialized in research on innovation and risk management at the University of International Business and Economics.

Also on Monday, the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors issued a notice urging financial institutions to channel more resources toward "early-stage, small-scale, long-term and hard-tech" projects, in a bid to steer capital more decisively into technological innovation and foster a financial system better aligned with innovation-driven growth.

The notice called for a tiered and categorized approach to managing the use of funds raised by tech firms. It proposed linking the intensity of research and development investment and overall research spending to the flexibility of how proceeds are deployed, so that capital can flow more directly into core innovation activities.

It encouraged companies to issue medium and long-term technology innovation bonds. Under the guidance, tech enterprises issuing such bonds should set maturities of no less than 270 days, while equity investment institutions are expected to issue bonds with maturities of three years or longer, better matching the long-cycle nature of research and equity investment.