Aimed at citizens in Beijing, China has launched its first foreign exchange trust product.

Providing a new investment tool to foreign exchange holders, the two-year term product has been designed and promoted by China International Trust and Investment Co (CITIC).

The money pooled will be used to finance the construction project of a development zone in Daxie Island in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, CITIC said.

The company has predicted a 2 per cent annual return.

The trust was open to orders last Friday through the CITIC Industrial Bank and starts over-the-counter selling formally today.

"Investors are very active. The market response has been much warmer than we expected," said an official with the fund and trust department of CITIC.

"We had planned a longer subscription period, but the US$4 million quota is soon to be fully subscribed," he told China Daily yesterday, adding that the subscription should finish very soon.

Investors who have successfully ordered the product should be able to purchase at bank counters today.

CITIC was the first to promote such a forex trust project in China. It won approval from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) to conduct such forex business on June 20, together with another trust company, the Jiangsu International Investment and Trust.

As a pioneer in the sector, CITIC has been very prudent in selecting the project to invest, the CITIC official said.

"The Daxie development zone started construction in 1993, and is now in the final stages, with foreseeable high and stable returns," he said.

Chinese trust companies, just going through a long rectification and re-registration, are now much freer in developing their renminbi trust projects.

Under existent regulations, they are allowed to do funds, movables and real-estate trust, launch investment funds and management companies.

Forex trust is also within the business scale, "but due to the strict forex control, a trust company still has to apply to SAFE for a licence," the CITIC official said.

China's personal forex savings reached more than US$90 billion by the end of May.

Yet consecutive interest rate cuts for the major foreign currencies in recent years have made savings much less attractive. For example, the annual interest rate for a one-year deposit of US dollar is only 0.5625 per cent.

Insiders said SAFE is now drafting a regulation on the forex management in the trust and investment companies, which may require them to use the raised forex funds within the mainland and only in the form of deposits, loans and financial leasing.

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