IPE - Investment industry professionals and representatives from major government agencies gathered in Beijing on Wednesday to celebrate the launch of Investment & Pensions China (IPC), IPA’s new Chinese-language sister publication.

Jesse Wang, chief risk officer at China Investment Corporation, who spoke at the event, said: “Chinese people are very good at short-term investment, but we need to develop long-term investment horizons and risk management capabilities. I hope the launch of IPC can help contribute to this process.

“We are developing good short-term risk management frameworks and tools, such as stress tests and simulation. The key challenge for us now is encouraging 10 or 20-year investment such as pensions saving.”

Wang said China was aware of the way pension saving had developed in the US through the 401k system.

“But China must work out a system that is most suited to its particular needs,” he said. “For example, we recently visited our Nordic peers to understand their approach to this issue. We welcome IPC as a forum for combining Chinese and foreign expert views in these discussions.”

Along with the print edition, IPC will publish articles online at www.ipe-china.com. 

Richard Newell, managing editor of IPA and IPC, said: “We hope to develop IPC into the premier source of information for professionals in China’s expanding pensions, insurance and asset management industries.

“These markets are set to experience a period of rapid evolution under the 12th Five-Year Plan. We’re excited to be launching IPC at a critical juncture in China’s economic development, a period where the emphasis is shifting from wealth accumulation to wealth management.”

Newell said the next few years would bring radical changes for China’s demographic composition and, by extension, the structure of its pensions systems.

“For the first time in 5,000 years, a majority of Chinese will live in cities,” he said. “China’s dependency ratio will start to rise within the next 12 months, signalling a new phase of demographic development. The government has committed to accelerated income growth in the next five years and to achieve full pensions coverage by 2013.”

Vanessa Wang, managing director and head of pension services for Citi’s securities and fund services business in China, said: “I welcome the launch of Investment and Pensions China. This magazine, with its parent company’s long history within the pensions industry and institutional investment, is positioned to become an important channel among the Chinese pension practitioners.”

Piers Diacre, chief executive at IPC sister company IPE, added his hopes for the new magazine.

“Since the very early days of IPE, it’s been our ambition to become a leader in Asian markets,” he said. “IPC will be at the forefront of this endeavour.”

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