China and France announced on November 15 the official launch of a €300 million investment fund to finance joint projects in Africa and Asia. The fund was launched on the sideline of the visit of China’s deputy Prime Minister, Kai ma, to France.

Managed by CDC International Capital (CDC IC), subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts dédiée aux partenariats d’investissements directs, and backed by the China Investment Corporation (CIC) sovereign fund, the new fund could reach a capital of two billion Euros, by opening up to other Chinese and French institutional investors.

It will mainly target the renewable energy, health and infrastructure sectors. “This new alliance, sealed with this fund, aims to foster economic cooperation between our countries. Rather than competing in Africa, we will now work together,” said Laurent Vigier, CEO of CDC IC. “It will also ease our entry in Asian markets which are still difficult to penetrate,” he added commenting the partnership.

Let’s recall that China and France signed in June 2015 a declaration of partnership for third country markets under which the two nations committed to win, together, new markets in Africa and Asia.

Moreover, under the same declaration, the two countries are to work together on infrastructure and energy projects and develop “new cooperation formulas for co-production and co-financing” which will target “mainly Asia and Africa”.