(Taipeitimes)
Updated: 2007-10-17 11:17

China's $200 billion state investment agency has paid $67 billion for a key investment arm of the nation's central bank, the firm's chief said yesterday.

"We have bought (Central Huijin) for $67 billion," Lou Jiwei, chairman of China Investment Corp, told reporters on the sidelines of the 17th Communist Party Congress, the nation's most important political meeting in five years where major policy decisions are made.

Central Huijin was an agency created as an investment vehicle that could act as the main owner of China's largest four state-run banks.

Its sale means it becomes part of China Investment Corp, the new agency tasked with maximizing investment returns on part of China's $1.4 trillion in forex holdings that are by far the world's largest.