Nanjing, the capital of China's Jiangsu province, in collaboration with Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance, has announced a 10 billion yuan ($1.48 billion) blockchain investment fund to foster blockchain ecosystem in the region, ZDNet reported.

The fund has been launched to push blockchain implementation in areas such as cross-border platforms, content, healthcare, energy, intellectual property, and environmental protection. With this initiative, Nanjing seeks to attract blockchain companies to move their base to the city.

According to the report, the fund’s first beneficiaries will be the UDAP Foundation and TokenX Community.

Based in Beijing, Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance is a consortium of blockchain companies and government research institutes. Chairman Yuan Dao said industries adopting blockchain technology will lead to countless more chains, which in turn will facilitate more technological breakthroughs.

The announcement was made at the inaugural Industrial Public Chain Summit (IPCS). It was attended by Luo Qun, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China in Nanjing, and other high-level local government officials.

The summit was also attended by Oh Kap-soo, chairman of South Korean government-backed finance research institute Global Finance Society, who said that blockchain technology has wide applicability in various sectors, adding that collaboration between the two countries could accelerate technological development.

Earlier in April, two more blockchain funds were launched in China – a government-backed $1.6 billion blockchain fund in Hangzhou, and another $80M fund backed by the city government of Shenzhen.

In addition, Xiongan New Area recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the U.S.-based blockchain startup ConsenSys to implement blockchain technology into the region’s core infrastructure.