China's much-awaited new sovereign wealth fund will start operations on September 28, a semi-official newspaper reported on Wednesday. The China Business News, echoing other media reports, said the chairman of the agency would be Lou Jiwei, a former deputy finance minister; Gao Xiqing, vice-chairman of China's national pension fund, would be the general manager.
But the paper, without giving sources, said deputy central bank governor Su Ning would not be part of the management team. Contradicting media reports earlier this month, it also said Goldman Sachs Managing Director Fred Hu would probably not head the new fund's research team.
China is establishing the fund to increase the investment returns on its mounting foreign exchange reserves, which reached nearly $1.4 trillion at the end of July.