China’s State Security Fund Council said that it has decided to appoint trustees to help its overseas investment operations. SSF’s overseas operations amount to US$1.1 billion. SSF was established in 2000 as a strategic reserve for China’s aging population. The total assets of the fund were estimated at more than CNY200 billion at the end of last year.
The fund mainly comes from budgetary allocations made by the Ministry of Finance. The Council said that eligible trustees would have to have more than US$5 billion in capital during the immediate preceding fiscal year or US$500 billion worth of capital under its trusteeship. Potential trustees’ ratings must be A or above and the rating must have been assigned by an internationally recognized rating institutions. The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the People’s Bank of China earlier approved provisional regulations governing the overseas investment of the fund.