China seeks to expand Sino-Africa fund

China is considering ways to attract more investors to its China-Africa Development (CAD) fund, the country's biggest equity fund focused on African investments, an official said Saturday. "The Chinese government wants to expand the fund, and we, the China Development Bank (CDB), now are the one and only investor, so we're looking forward to finding partners to invest in the fund," said Wang Yuan, chief economist of the CDB. She said there was not yet a timetable for adding investors, and the Ministry of Commerce is taking charge of the expansion. As one of Chinese banks issuing foreign currency loans, the CDB had granted financial support of seven billion U.S. dollars to more than 30 African countries by September 2011, Wang said. The CAD fund, the country' s major investment vehicle in Africa, was set up in 2007, a year after the Beijing Summit on China-Africa Cooperation, where President Hu Jintao pledged to establish it as one of the eight measures to boost China-Africa ties. CDB solely provided the initial sum of 1 billion U.S. dollars to the fund and has since taken the helm, according to Wang. The CAD fund is set to expand to 5 billion U.S. dollars in the coming five years, the China Daily reported in May, citing fund president Chi Jianxin. The fund mainly focuses on equity investments to Chinese enterprises that have operations in Africa or plan to invest on the continent.