Fundraising

China gets $28bn PPP fund up and running

China Construction bank and Postal Savings Bank of China are said to have contributed an initial $4.6bn each to the vehicle.

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Having been greenlighted by the State Council, China's CNY180 billion ($27.6 billion; €24.9 billion) PPP Fund has now officially been launched by the country's Ministry of Finance. 

Top Chinese institutions including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp (CCB), Bank of China, China Life Insurance, CITIC Group and the National Council for Social Security Fund have already signed up to the scheme, which was proposed last September.

Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Everbright Group and Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) also count among the 10 institutions that so far represent the fund's shareholders. 

It is understood that CCB and PSBC will each contribute CNY30 billion to the fund as part of the first batch of capital injections in the vehicle. Other stakeholders will each contribute CNY5 to15 billion to the fund. 

The fund will mainly aim to make equity investments, leveraging private sector investments and lowering financing costs in Chinese PPP projects in a bid to boost the country's PPP programme. 

Last week, the vehicle's first shareholder meeting saw the naming of Zhou Chengyue as chairman as well as the appointment of six directors and eight supervisory board members. 

Zhou is currently an Inspector within the Finance Department at the Ministry of Finance. Prior to that, he was the Deputy Head of National Treasury Department, responsible for managing government bonds and working on related policies. 

The management team of the fund will be based in Beijing, with its office set within the ministry. 

According to the country's PPP Centre, 7,110 PPP projects have been included in the centre's database, with a total investment value of CNY8.13 trillion, since the programme's inception in 2013. These projects cover 19 industries ranging from energy and transportation to water utilities and urban construction.

More than half of the projects are located in five provinces – Guizhou, Shandong, Sichuan, Henan, Xinjiang. Only 351 projects are being implemented, however, with 5,542 projects still at a very early stage.