China's State Security Fund (SSF) Council is seeking trustees to help its overseas investment operations, involving up to US$1.1 billion this year.

The council said potential trustees that 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 the equivalent in currency during the immediate fiscal year, or US$500 billion worth of capital under its trusteeship.

Potential trustees' ratings must be from internationally recognized ratings institutions in the past three years and must be a rating of A or above. They should be established and registered outside China to be eligible, it said.

The government gave the go-ahead for the SSF to invest overseas as of May 1 after the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labour 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 ageing 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 revenue from sales of shares in 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.

(China Daily May 4, 2006)