China looking to invest in US, European infrastructure

China's sovereign wealth fund is looking to invest in improving US and European roads and other infrastructure to spur global growth, according to the fund's chairman, Lou Jiwei.

According to political analysts, the announcement points to a shift in strategy for the $410-billion fund, which was created in 2007.

Thus far, its investments were limited mostly to small stakes in publicly traded companies in order not to raise political opposition overseas.

China Investment Corp was looking to start with Britain by teaming up with fund managers or with direct investments in infrastructure projects, Lou said in a commentary in London's Financial Times newspaper.

''China is keen to get involved'' in improving US and European infrastructure, which ''badly needs more investment,'' Lou wrote. Though he cited energy, water, transport, digital communications and waste disposal as areas of interest, he did not give any indication of possible projects or the size of Chinese investment.

According to some commentators in both Europe and China, Beijing could use its $3.2-trillion in foreign reserves to gain leverage on political or trade issues at a time when other governments were in need of investments.