CIC registered a 17 per cent gain in 2009

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />China's sovereign wealth fund, now 30 months old, over the weekend invited many of the world's top money managers to a conference on the resort island of Hainan in a sign of growing Chinese confidence in finance.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The two-day conference, chaired by Lou Jiwei, head of China Investment Corp, seemed to have no overt agenda other than to celebrate CIC's performance, some participants said.

One participant said the conference was to inform people that CIC was not “nervous about private capital”.

In Mr Lou's opening remarks, he spoke of the significance of balancing investment and consumption and about the importance of investment in the face of adverse demographics.

The fund, which has responsibility for $200bn of China's vast foreign reserves, registered a 17 per cent gain last year. That performance marks it as one of the top performing sovereign funds. Because it has done so well, CIC is receiving far more money this year.

“It was a coming out party,” said one invitee from New York. “If they were proud, it was justified. They did very well.”

Although the conference was held against the backdrop of increasing tensions between the US and China over the value of the renminbi, there was little formal discussion of the currency.

The conference was organised around panels on topics including private equity, real estate, emerging markets, hedge funds and distressed debt, with panellists including real estate magnate Sam Zell, Tony James, president of Blackstone Group (in which CIC has a big stake), Deryck Maughan of KKR, distressed investor Wilbur Ross, and Howard Marks, chairman of Oaktree Capital Management in Los Angeles.

Hedge funds, including Brevan Howard, Eton Park and Tudor Investments, were also there, as were bankers led by John Mack, chairman of Morgan Stanley, in which CIC also has a big stake.

Dozens of CIC staffers were in attendance as well as invitees from other Chinese investment groups such as Citic Capital and CICC, a joint venture investment bank in which Morgan Stanley recently sold its stake to private equity firms KKR and TPG.

CIC told the conference that it did not plan to change its strategy, which includes investing heavily in dollar-denominated securities, commodities including energy, and real estate.