British finance minister Alistair Darling said on Tuesday he welcomed investment from China's sovereign wealth fund, amid ongoing concern about state-owned funds.
"The UK welcomes the creation of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund, and its potential for investing in our country," the chancellor of the exchequer said in a statement after talks with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan. Darling made the comments on the second day of his three-day trip to China aimed at cementing financial and economic links between the two countries.
Sovereign wealth funds - state-owned funds - around the world have come under scrutiny in the past year amid concerns over their alleged lack of transparency and suspicions that their objectives might be political as well as financial.
China Investment Corp (CIC), China's 200-billion-dollar fund, has also come under the spotlight, with US lawmakers fearing it could snap up strategic assets in the credit-tight United States and threaten American security and sovereignty.
CIC vice president Jesse Wang recently dismissed these concerns, saying it was inappropriate to link these funds to nationalism. "It's inappropriate to politicise investments by sovereign wealth funds or link them to nationalism, " he told the China Securities Journal last month. Darling said Britain and China recognised the importance of taking part in discussions on the issues surrounding sovereign wealth funds.
"Both countries recognise the importance of actively participating in the current discussions taking place in the international institutions on the issues between sovereign wealth funds and recipient countries to achieve better cooperation on a mutually open basis," Darling said in his statement.
He said London attracts more Chinese inward investment than any other location in Europe, and that there were now more than 350 Chinese companies in Britain. Darling visits Chongqing in south-western China on Wednesday, where he will meet local leaders and bankers to discuss financial innovation.