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)