Russia and China have announced the setting up of a $4 billion investment fund aimed to boost joint trade and cooperation.
The agreement was in China in the presence of Russian Premier Vladimir Putin and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao during the Russia-China Trade-Investment Forum.“The fund will be launched in June. We will be making our first investments in the next three months,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund told RT. “We’ll focus on projects with good returns in such sectors as agricultures, machinery and logistics”.Russian Direct Investment Fund will contribute $1 bln to the joint fund and $1 bln will come from China Investment Corporation (CIC). The other $2 billion is expected to come from other investors in the next two years, according to Mr Dmitriev.“There is already quite a bit of interest from other investors because CIC is one of the leading investors in the world. So the fund gets a lot of international attention,” he explained. “Many investors believe that Russian and Chinese cooperation will grow, there will be many business opportunities and investment if that makes sense.”The fund would invest in private businesses and non-public companies across China and Russia, not focusing only on cross-border transactions. However, about 30% will be invested in Chinese companies, while at least 70% of the investment would go to Russian companies.