China’s state fund kicks start new Silk Road project with eastern Europe investment

A Chinese government-backed fund focusing on investing in central and eastern Europe is poised to make its first investment this year amid Beijing’s ambitious new Silk Road initiative, the head of the company overseeing the fund said.

The fund is finalising its first investments after going through a list of about 100 projects involving infrastructure, manufacturing and consumer products, Jiang Jianqing, chairman of the Sino-CEEF Holding, told the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of a financial forum in Shanghai on Saturday.

The fund is seeking to raise €10 billion (US$11.2 billion) in funding and “a significant part of it has already been secured”, Jiang said after speaking at a forum held by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

He declined to elaborate on specific investment figures or prospective projects as negotiations are continuing.

Sino-CEEF, which was inaugurated by Premier Li Keqiang and his Latvian counterpart Maris Kucinskis in the Latvian capital Riga in November 2016, was set up as a platform for economic cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe, Xinhua reported earlier.

The fund has a capital leverage target of €50 billion.