China's top legislature is to discuss an issuance of special
treasury bonds by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) for the country's
foreign exchange investment at a six-day session beginning on June
24.
The Chinese government said in March it would establish a state
foreign exchange investment company this year to maximize returns
on the country's huge foreign exchange reserves.
By the end of March this year, China's foreign exchange reserves
had reached US$1.2 trillion, up 37.4 percent on the previous year,
mostly invested in low-yielding dollar bonds.
Tuesday's Shanghai Securities News quoted an unnamed insider as
saying the company would receive capital from the MOF, which
planned to issue US$200 billion to US$250 billion of special
treasury bonds to purchase the same amount of foreign exchange from
the central bank.
In May, the company, which was not yet fully established, agreed
to invest three billion US dollars in the US private equity firm
the Blackstone Group.
Other economic issues on the agenda of the 28th session of the
Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC)
include a draft anti-monopoly law and a draft amendment to the law
on energy conservation.
(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2007)