China Investment Corp. (CIC) has slowed down its capital investment amid the global economic recession, said Zhang Hongli, the vice general manager of the company.

"Since last September, CIC has adjusted the investment plan mapped out at the beginning of 2008. We reduced capital investment to hold more cash in hand," said Zhang at a seminar attended by businesses and financial institutions in Beijing.

A couple CIC's overseas investments have raised doubts since it was founded in 2007, especially its investments in the Blackstone Group and Morgan Stanley which have been severely affected by the subprime crisis. Zhang admitted the company suffered some loss, but he said CIC aimed at a long-term investment and it was hard to predict the financial environment in the next few years.

CIC, with a registered capital of 200 billion US dollars, was founded in September 29, 2007. The state-owned forex investment firm (then National Forex Investment Company) made its first investment of 3 billion US dollars into Blackstone on May 2007. However, it suffered a floating loss of 5 billion yuan two months later. It also invested 5 billion US dollars to Morgan Stanley in the same year and suffered a floating loss of 4 billion US dollars as the stock price of the latter nosedived to 14 US dollars from 50 US dollars.

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http://paper.cnstock.com/html/2009-01/06/content_66820160.htm

(China.org.cn January 6, 2009)