Moving up the finance ladder

Despite its present size and scale, China's first sovereign wealth fund had relatively humble beginnings. The Beijing-based coffers started off as a State-owned enterprise on Sept 29, 2007, with an initial investment of $200 billion.

In the early days, its role was mainly to diversify China's foreign exchange holdings and maximize returns for shareholders within acceptable levels of risk.

That role has evolved over the years to other corporate services such as equity participation in global firms, providing capital for cash-strapped enterprises and even investment in foreign utility services. CIC now has assets worth about $575 billion under its management.