An agreement signing event for major projects to support science and technology development with financial services was held in Central China's Hubei province May 20.

Hubei Venture Capital Investment Guide Fund and domestically well-known investment institutions, including Shenyin & Wanguo Securities and Wings Investment, set up a sci-tech innovation equity investment fund valued at 1 billion yuan ($155.5 million) at the event, with the aim of supporting the development of the Optics Valley sci-tech innovation corridor.

The fund will focus on investment in transformation projects of sci-tech achievements in the Optics Valley sci-tech innovation corridor area, covering areas such as optoelectronics, biomedicine, high-end equipment, digital economy, energy conservation and environmental protection.

The Optics Valley sci-tech innovation corridor, taking East Lake Science City in Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone (Optics Valley of China) as its core, is in coordinated development with Ezhou, Huangshi, Huanggang, and Xianning in Hubei province.

Hubei Venture Capital Investment Guide Fund has participated in 30 sub-funds with a scale of more than 7 billion yuan, focusing on the province's emerging industries such as optoelectronic information, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials and biomedicine.

The funds have supported sci-tech achievement transformation of 361 projects from colleges and universities in the province, and helped more than 3,500 patents' applications and authorizations for companies.

It will focus on support for optoelectronic information technology, aerospace technology, high-end equipment, and other industries involved in the Optics Valley sci-tech innovation corridor, according to officials.