beyondbrics

China Investment Corp, the country’s $300bn sovereign wealth fund, is recruiting again, possibly preparing for a huge new cash injection.

On Tuesday CIC announced its latest “worldwide” recruitment drive with 64 positions advertised.

But laid-off Lehman employees shouldn’t get their hopes up unless they were born in China and – for at least some posts – are members of the Chinese Communist Party.
As you can see above (if you blow up the image), CIC’s online recruitment announcement is in both Chinese and English. But the job descriptions are only in Chinese, underlining the fact that CIC is only really interested in “highly qualified professionals” who are ethnically Chinese.

Given the sensitive nature of CIC’s investments around the world new recruits are expected to be very discreet and very loyal to the Chinese government, which rules out most foreign financial professionals.

The jobs on offer range from secretarial staff and human resources managers – “must be Chinese Communist Party member” – to country analyst in the international cooperation department – “must be good at keeping secrets”.

CIC is also looking for asset allocation researchers, financial analysts, credit risk analysts and hedge fund analysts as well as a deputy director for its Disciplinary Committee and Staff Supervisory Bureau to manage the fund’s “discipline education team”.

The successful candidate for that job will be a “fair and upright Chinese Communist Party Member with a precise work style and strong comprehensive awareness.”

In its recruitment notice for private equity investment managers CIC said it is not yet formally accepting applications but is interested in resumes from anyone with investment experience in overseas real estate markets, agricultural sectors, forestry and infrastructure.

That gives a strong hint of the sectors CIC will be looking to invest in when it receives a new injection of cash – expected to be as much as $200bn – from the country’s $2,500bn in foreign exchange reserves.

The deadline for job applicants is August 9, which suggests the new money could be coming down the pipeline quite soon.