The Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) is a bilateral cooperation fund created by the
Russian Direct Investment Fund and the
China Investment Corporation to invest in opportunities linking
Russia, the
Commonwealth of Independent States, and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
.
Fundraising
RCIF was established in 2012. The initial seed capital of US$2 billion was funded in equal part by the China Investment Corporation, the
sovereign wealth fund of China, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Russia. In October 2018, the RCIF became trilateral with
Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of
Saudi Arabia, contributing US$500 million to the RCIF, raising total capital to US$2.5 billion.
The fund continues to seek contributions from new investors.
Investments
The RCIF was founded to pursue investment opportunities in Russia, members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and investments in China with a close connection to Russia including
China–Russia border infrastructure projects and Chinese firms trading with Russia in technology and services.
Other funds
Other China-Russia funds have been funded or implemented with the contribution of the RCIF.
In 2017,
China Development Bank
The China Development Bank (CDB) () is a development bank in the People's Republic of China (PRC), led by a cabinet minister at the Governor level, under the direct jurisdiction of the State Council. As one of three policy banks in China, it ...
, a Chinese policy bank and the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced plans to establish a China-Russia RMB Investment Cooperation Fund. RDIF chose to implement its part of the joint fund through RCIF while CDB used its subsidiary China Development Bank Capital for implementation. The goal behind the fund was to make investments of 68 billion yuan in Russian and Chinese projects including the
Belt and Road Initiative
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R), formerly known as One Belt One Road ( zh, link=no, 一带一路) or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 150 ...
and to help simplify investments in the Chinese and Russian currencies in the other country.
In 2018, during Russian President
Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing, Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) and China Chengtong Holdings Group announced agreement to establish a US$1 billion "industrial investment fund".
References
{{One Belt, One Road
Belt and Road Initiative
Private equity firms of China