JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – APRIL 26, 2017 – The China Overseas Infrastructure Development and Investment Corporation (COIDIC) inaugurated its African headquarters in Johannesburg. COIDIC is China’s first overseas platform for the early stage development of infrastructure projects. Participating in the inauguration ceremonies were Mr.Rong Yansong, the Economic and Commercial Counselor of Chinese Embassy in South Africa, Mr Sindiso Ngwenya, Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Deputy Minister Mr Bulelani Magwanishe of the department of Trade and Industry and Vice-President Zhou Chao of the CADFund and Board President of COIDIC.

COIDIC’s founding shareholders include: the China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund), a subsidiary of China Development Bank (CDB); China Gezhouba Group Overseas Investments Co. Ltd; China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation(CCECC)；China Telecom Global Limited; Changjiang Survey, Planning, Design and Research Co., Ltd (CISPDR); China ENFI Engineering Corporation; and HCIG Energy Investment Co., Ltd. With its designed capital US$500 million, COIDIC is the world’s largest fund ever targeted for project preparation in emerging market countries.

COIDIC was launched in September 2016 at the 2nd Invest in Africa Forum in Guangzhou, China. After seven months of preparation, COIDIC has now formally opened its office for Africa, making an important step towards its internationalization and localization in Africa and settling a solid foundation for its African business.

The main business of COIDIC is the early stage development of Public Private Partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects, handling financial, engineering and legal aspects of project preparation. COIDIC undertakes projects from concept phase through bankability to create a supply of project ready for construction, thereby directly addressing the scarcity of properly prepared projects ready for financial close. COIDIC’s first focus is project preparation in Africa, and soon it expects to expand its operations to contribute to China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) program, with the goal of becoming an influential global "project incubator platform" for essential infrastructure development.

In addition to undertaking specific projects, COIDIC also offers a Sovereign Development Service (SDS), which provides working teams to collaborate with host governments to review national development plans and to select viable project for development.SDS programs currently are underway with the Republic of Congo, Madagascar and COMESA, and COIDIC expects to create new SDS relationships over the coming months. In March 2017 Mr. Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, noted the company’s contribution by stating, “The preliminary plan of the Special Economic Zone of Pointe Noire in Republic of Congo has already started”, as an important illustration by suiting the action to the word for the China-Africa cooperation.

COIDIC focuses on three areas of infrastructure: power and energy; transportation; and ICT. The company seeks projects that promote intra-Africa trade or support urbanization. Projects are evaluated on financial viability, contribution to national and regional GDP, social and environmental effects and implications for employment.

COIDIC’s sponsor and leading shareholder was the China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund), an equity fund launched by China Development Bank in June 2007. To date CADFund has committed over $4 billion in equity to 89 projects in 36 countries in Africa, in areas including infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, and energy. CADFund has been mandated by the Chinese government to reach a total of $10 billion of investments over the coming years.