Ding Xuedong officially named CIC chairman
Confirmation comes after top job at mainland sovereign wealth fund left vacant for months
China Investment Corp, the mainland's US$480 billion sovereign wealth fund whose chairmanship had been left vacant for months, finally confirmed last night that a senior cabinet official had been appointed to the post.
Ding Xuedong, a former deputy secretary general of the State Council, was officially named CIC's new chairman in a brief statement posted on the fund's website, confirming a report by the South China Morning Post on June 29 about the expected appointment.
"In accordance with the decision rendered by the State Council of the People's Republic of China on July 3, 2013, Mr Ding Xuedong has been appointed as chairman of China Investment Corp," CIC said in the one-sentence statement.
Ding, 53, was the State Council's youngest ever deputy secretary general and served as a deputy finance minister for about two years between 2008 and 2010 before joining the cabinet office.
He succeeds Lou Jiwei, the founding chairman of CIC, who was promoted to finance minister earlier this year in the wake of the Communist Party's once-a-decade leadership transition.
Lou had been a deputy finance minister for about nine years when the government assigned him to set up CIC in 2007 in a move aimed at helping Beijing better manage its huge foreign exchange reserves.