Sovereign fund banks on prospects in United States

CIC looking at investment in both infrastructure and manufacturing

China’s sovereign fund China Investment Corp, which manages about $800 billion assets including $200 billion of overseas investments, is actively looking for investment opportunities in the US infrastructure and manufacturing sectors — to graft their products and industries onto the Chinese economy, a senior executive told the World Economic Conference in Davos, Switzerland.

CIC Executive Vice-President Qi Bin said in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, that the Belt and Road Initiative is an effective proposal for global long-term economic growth as well as the answer to many current geopolitical conflicts.

“The Belt and Road countries, both developed and developing ones, will be very important investment destinations for CIC going forward,” Qi said.

“I think there are many opportunities where China and those economies can complement each other.”

He added that US President-elect Donald Trump is promoting infrastructure and manufacturing and that is where Chinese investors could offer help.

“CIC is actively looking for investment opportunities in the infrastructure sector in the US as well as the manufacturing sector in the midwest region, trying to marry the products and industries to the Chinese economy,” Qi said.

As for developing countries, Qi said many countries such as Georgia and Azerbaijan lacked a cement industry. Currently, a lot of Chinese cement companies were helping these countries build their cement capacities.

Qi added that manufacturing costs in a lot of Southeast Asian countries have been much lower than those of China. Goods that were currently being produced in China could be produced in those countries at much lower costs and then be sold back to Chinese markets and international markets to benefit consumers.

China’s economic growth will benefit the rest of the world.” Qi Bin, CIC’s executive vice-president