OREANDA-NEWS. July 11, 2013. July Marked the formal establishment of the China-Portugal Cooperation and Development Fund. This fund (hereafter written as the "CPCD Fund") is one of six initiatives announced by China at a ministerial-level conference of during third-annual Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries; the fund is to be one billion USD in size.

The purpose of the CPCD Fund is to support enterprises in China (including Macau) in their investment and cooperation with national enterprises in Portuguese-speaking countries. This will allow for direct investment between cooperating enterprises, increase the overall strength of enterprise investment, and encourage the economic development of member countries. The fund will conduct investment in accordance with market principles, autonomously select investment projects within the member countries, make decisions independently and assume all corresponding risks, strive for stable returns, and exit from all investment activity before the end of the duration of the fund.

Trade between China and Portuguese-speaking countries totaled 128.497 billion USD in 2012, a growth rate of 9.6% compared to the previous year. Among this trade, China exported 41.052 billion USD in products to Portuguese-speaking countries and imported 87.225 billion USD, primarily with Brazil, Angola, and Portugal- China's three largest Portuguese-speaking trading partners. China’s interaction and trade cooperation with these countries continues to expand and strengthen.

The CPCD Fund was co-sponsored by the National Development Bank and the Macau Business Development Fund, with the first installment of 125 billion USD provided by the China Development Bank Company, Ltd. and the Macau Business Development Fund, with the China-Africa Development Fund responsible for all investment operations and management. The China Development Bank Company, Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the China Development Bank with the only RMB investment license within the Chinese banking industry and fifteen years of private equity investment experience; the Macau Business Development Fund is a public corporation that assists in economic development projects and activities in close cooperation with Macau's small-to-medium enterprises; the China-Africa Development Fund was one of six initiatives announced by China during the 2006 Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Development Forum, and is the only equity investment fund in China that focuses on Chinese enterprise investment in Africa; this fund is also funded by the China Development Bank, and is known as the "primary platform for Chinese enterprise investment in Africa."