China Investment Corp will open on Saturday, the Beijing-based China Securities Journal said today.

The reserves agency of China will have an 11-member board of directors, said the report.

Lou Jiwei, deputy secretary-general with the State Council, will be chairman of the agency with a registered capital of US$200 billion, while Gao Xiqing, deputy chairman of the National Social Security Fund, will be general manager.

Zhang Hongli, a vice minister at China's finance ministry, is one of the three executive directors of the agency together with Lou and Gao.

The agency will also have five non-executive directors, including Hu Xiaolian, director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and Liu Shiyu, vice governor of People's Bank of China, the report said.

Liu Zhongli, former finance minister, and Wang Chunzheng, vice director with the National Development and Reform Commission, will be independent directors of the agency.

China is setting up the company to help increase the returns on the country's foreign-exchange investments, currently mostly parked in US-dollar assets.

Meanwhile, China Central Huijin Investment Co will be merged into the agency to better manage mounting foreign reserves.

Central Huijin has been injecting huge amounts of foreign currency into China's three big state-owned banks to help clean their bad-debt and take stakes of these banks as return.

After the merger, Central Huijin will continue its key role in the restructuring of state-owned banks.

Its parent company will focus on overseas investment.

The agency is collecting money by selling special bonds worth of US$200 billion.

(Shanghai Daily September 27, 2007)