BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s top economic planner said on Friday that it had launched venture capital funds totaling 9 billion yuan ($1.32 billion) jointly with several provincial governments and private investors to support the country’s growing high-tech sector.

Investments will focus on electronic and information industries, the biological and pharmaceutical sector and environmental and energy-related projects, the National Development and Reform Commission, the powerful planning agency, said in a statement on its website (www.ndrc.gov.cn).

It said that seven provincial-level governments had joined the venture capital scheme: Beijing, Jilin, Shanghai, Anhui, Hunan, Chongqing and Shenzhen.

“The purpose of setting up the funds is to direct capital to invest in competitive high-tech enterprises and to improve their capacity for innovation,” the statement said.

The money will be spread among a total of 20 venture capital funds. The central government contributed 1 billion yuan, local governments pitched in 1.2 billion yuan and the remainder came from private investors, the official Xinhua news agency said.

It did not provide any details about who the private investors were or about how the venture capital funds would be structured.