Zhao Jianping

Chairman, China-Africa Development Fund

China Development Bank Vice-Governor Zhao Jianping has taken the reins of the China-Africa Development Fund from CDB colleague Gao Jian. Zhao's career is marginally more cosmopolitan than that of the man he quietly replaced in March. Zhao earned a master's at the Management School of the University of Texas, United States. He then worked as a manager at the Bank of China's Hong Kong and Macau office from 1993 to 1998. Zhao returned to Beijing to become Vice-Director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange before joining the CDB as Vice-Governor in 2001.

The CADF was announced at the third Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing, 2006. The Fund was established in June 2007 with an initial US$1 billion from the CDB, with an eventual target of $5 bn. In funding and ambition, the CADF is a modest operation that has shown none of the show-stopping purchases of parent CDB or China's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation. To date, CADF-funded projects include a cotton plant in Malawi, a power station in Ghana and a glass factory in Ethiopia, as well as investment in trade zones in Egypt and Nigeria.

In March 2009, CADF opened an office in Johannesburg, South Africa, to more closely monitor opportunities. In September, the Mauritius-Jinfei Economic Trade and Cooperation Zone was launched, with the CADF and three Chinese industrial enterprises are partners in the project. The same month, CADF abandoned an attempt to save South Africa's Pamodzi Gold from liquidation. Meanwhile, the Governor of Nigeria's Ogub state, Gbenga Daniel, visited Beijing to solicit interest in the Olokola Free Trade Zone from CADF Vice-President Hu Zhirong.