Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Holdings Co, a major developer of China's home-grown 3G standard, received a 2.6 billion yuan investment from the country's national pension fund, sources said.

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) completed its investment in Datang Telecom Holdings in October and now holds a 20 percent stake in the company, a source familiar with the matter told China Daily yesterday.

The investment, which is the national pension funds' first in a central government-owned, non-financial enterprise, will be used to bankroll advancements in the firm's equipment production capacity and also raise additional working capital, the source said.

Datang Telecom Holdings is a subsidiary of Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group, one of the country's leading telecom equipment makers.

In a statement posted on its website on Tuesday, Datang Telecom Group said the National Social Security Fund bought a stake in its subsidiary, without disclosing any details.

The deal will help the company boost its competitiveness in the 3G sector and speed up promotion of China's home-grown 3G standard, known as Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access or TD-SCDMA.

In January 2006, China's Ministry of Information Industry formally named TD-SCDMA as the nation's 3G mobile telecommunication standard.

Since the government began issuing 3G licenses to telecom operators early this year, investor interest in Datang Telecom Group has been on the rise.

The share price of its Shanghai-listed subsidiary, Datang Telecom Technology Co, went up 172 percent this year, boosted by the fact that TD-SCDMA technology has been adopted by China Mobile, the country's largest cell-phone operator, and utilized in the firm's massive deployment of its nationwide, 3G network.

Last year, State Development & Investment Corp bought a 35 percent stake in Datang Telecom Holdings for 5 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, Datang Telecom Group said earlier this month that it plans to launch TD-SCDMA-based e-books in the near future.

Since its establishment in August 2000, the National Social Security Fund has invested 64.9 billion yuan in domestic firms including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, Bank of China Ltd and Bank of Communications Co, Datang Telecom Group said.

(China Daily December 31, 2009)