By staff reporter Li Qing

China Investment Corp. (CIC) joined a panel organized by International Monetary Fund (IMF) to draft rules for burgeoning sovereign wealth funds (SWF) around the world.

Representatives from CIC, the company responsible for investing US$ 200 billion of China’s foreign reserves overseas, are in Chile currently with IMF officials and members from other 24 SWFs to discuss the third draft of a set of generally accepted principles and practices (GAPP).

By pushing forward GAPP, IMF hopes to regulate internal structures of SWFs, monitor their investment strategies and enforce standards on information disclosure.

The panel was formed in April this year by IMF and 25 SWFs, among them 12 major funds including those from China and Cartel drafted the first version of GAPP. In June and July, the panel held two discussions and plans to issue a final version in September, before submitting it to the World Bank and IMF in October. 

According to IMF, there are 25 SWFs managing more than US$500 million around the globe. Financial analysts predict that the total wealth under SWFs’ wings will be more than 10 trillion by 2012.