China's National Council for Social Security Fund (SSF) on
Monday signed deals in Beijing with two global investment trustees
to help its upcoming overseas investment operations.
The SSF Council started to seek global investment trustees at
the end of April, and Northern Trust Corporation and the
CitigroupInc, both from the Unites States, were selected.
Although specific overseas investment quota has not been
announced, Xiang Huaicheng, Chairman of the Council, said on Monday
that the fund's move to invest overseas will avoid risky
investments.
The SSF Council was approved by the Chinese government to use
part of its total assets for overseas investment on May 1.
Financial experts believed that overseas investment operations
will help the SSF explore more investment opportunities, diversify
investment risks and maintain and increase the value of the
fund.
The fund was set up in 2000 by the Chinese government as its
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
2005.
The fund mainly comes from budgetary allocation from the
Ministry of Finance as well as revenues from the sale of shares of
State-owned firms listed overseas.
Northern Trust Corporation (Nasdaq:NTRS) is a leading provider
of asset and fund administration, investment, management, fiduciary
and banking solutions for corporations, institutions and affluent
individuals worldwide.
As of March 16 of this year, Northern Trust was approved by
China's banking watchdog, the China Banking Regulatory Commission
(CBRC), to open its first branch office in the Chinese
mainland.
The Citigroup Inc. now has six corporate bank branches namely in
Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The
bank has also opened 12 consumer bank outlets in the Chinese
mainland, with 2,600 Chinese staff.
In August 2006, the Citigroup received a Qualified Domestic
Institutional Investor (QDII) license. The license will enable
Citigroup to make international investments on behalf of Chinese
companies and individuals. The bank also received approval to offer
custodian services to banking institutions in China that are
qualified to provide overseas wealth management services under the
QDII program.
(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2006)