China's MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) has planned to establish a $30 billion RMB (US$4.94 billion; US$1=$6.0725 RMB) private equity for the development of IC industry in Beijing, Commercial Times reported on December 20. The money will be used to finance IC design, fabrication, packaging & testing, and core equipment industries, including a LSI (Large Scale Integrated Circuit) production project proposed by the Northern SMIC Semiconductor Manufacturing (Beijing) Co. Ltd. By industry, at least 60% of the equity fund will be invested directly in the IC industry, with at most 40% being put into upstream and downstream industries. By region, Beijing will receive a minimum of 60% while other regions will be capped at 40%.