CIC boss pledges transparency for fund

The president of China Investment Corp (CIC), the country’s sovereign wealth fund, said the fund would strive to emulate the level of transparency of the well regarded Norwegian pension fund, the Wall Street Journal reported. In an interview with US TV show 60 Minutes, shown on Sunday, Gao Xiqing also stressed that CIC will play no management role in the companies it invests in. The fund was launched last September and charged with generating better returns on a portion – US$200 billion – of China’s US$1.53 trillion in foreign exchange reserves. The emergence of CIC and other new sovereign funds has prompted calls for a code of conduct for such groups. However, Gao said the code being drawn up by the IMF "will only hurt feelings." He also defended CIC’s lack of disclosure and hit out at the negative attention the fund has received since its launch.