China's State Security Fund (SSF) Council is seeking trustees to
help its overseas investment operations, which involves up to
US$1.1 billion this year.
The council said potential trustees, which hold legal title to
the capital in order to administer it for SSF, should have the
capacity for secure storage of SSF's overseas investment
assets.
The eligible trustees should have more than US$5 billion in
capital or equivalent of currency during the immediate fiscal year,
or US$500 billion worth of capital under its trusteeship. Potential
trustees' ratings must be given by internationally recognized
rating institutions in the past three years and must be A or above.
They should be established and registered outside China to be
eligible, it said.
The government gave the go-ahead to overseas investment by the
SSF as of May 1 after the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of
Labor and Social Security, and the People's Bank of China, the
country's central bank, approved provisional regulations governing
the overseas investment of the fund last month.
The government established the fund in 2000 as a strategic
reserve for its aging population, and its total assets were valued
at 201.02 billion yuan (US$25.1 billion) by the end of last
year.
The fund mainly comes from budgetary allocation from the
Ministry of Finance, and revenues from sales of shares of
state-owned firms listed overseas.
Under the investment plan unveiled last month, up to US$800
million will be used for share investment in overseas markets while
up to US$300 million will be invested overseas in products with
fixed returns.
Overseas investment will help the fund to expand its range of
investments, diversify risks and maintain and increase the value of
the fund, said a statement from the SSF.
(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2006)