A charitable body set up by Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates has won approval to invest $100 million in China's main stock and debt markets, regulators said on Saturday.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is only the 17th institution allowed to trade in China's $500 billion stock markets under a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) programme, intended to attract big names on to fledgling bourses.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced the foundation's quota - the final obstacle to actual investment - on its Web site (www.safe.gov.cn).
The philanthropic organisation set up by Gates and his wife, which paid out grants totalling $1.182 billion in 2003, has an endowment of about $27 billion, its Web site, www.gatesfoundation.org, said.
It supports the global fight against AIDS, malaria and other diseases, among other things.
Launched in 2002, QFII offers foreign investors the option of riding Chinese corporate growth by buying directly into a wide range of mainland-listed companies.
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