On September 12, China and World Bank announced the official launch of a new finance institution for infrastructure projects in Africa with an initial capital of $500 million.
China Overseas Infrastructure Development and Investment Corporation Ltd (COIDIC), the new entity should support infrastructure projects during conception, stake acquisition, commercial exploitation, feasibility studies and fund mobilization, a statement of the Chinese government revealed.
Among shareholders of the COIDIC, there are various Chinese banks and companies, including the China Development Bank (CDB), the China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund) and the China Gezhouba Group Overseas Investment.
COIDIC’s deputy chief, Nicholas Mitsos said they want to show through the infrastructure that Chinese and entities from the West can team up to underwrite and construct essential public infrastructure in the developing world”.
“After these projects are completed investors and lenders can exit profitably. Exit targets include pension funds, insurance companies and other institutional investors worldwide that will want de-risked long-dated infrastructure assets yielding more than government bonds,” he added highlighting that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB) which is a development bank recently launched by BRICS member-states, will be called to participate in the financing of projects.