It’s big, it’s bureaucratic, and it has US$200bn to play with. Time to work as a fund manager for the Chinese government’s new investment agency?

China recently gave the green light for the agency to seek higher rates of return overseas. An indication of its intent came with the acquisition for US$3 billion of a 10% stake in US private equity firm, Blackstone.

With all that loot to manage, recruiters reckon China will look to bring in foreign expertise to compliment local talent – and they say it’s likely they will prefer candidates with a private rather than a public sector background.

“Successful fund managers with relevant experience in the markets that the fund will be investing in will be most suitable,” says Matthew Hoyle, Asia Pacific director at Matthew Hoyle International.

The question is, will China’s government pay up? Public sector organisations aren’t usually known for their generosity. However, Hoyle feels the new agency could be an exception: “They will have to really dig deep to get the right people when it comes to compensation: if they do not pay very competitively, they will not get top of the line expats. So pay could even be higher than current market levels,” he speculates.

But one specialist fund management recruiter said higher salaries would not be enough to mitigate concerns about working for a government organisation: “My worry is how much autonomy the fund has when it comes to compensating staff,” he argues. “I’d have thought it unlikely to pay a fund manager millions of dollars in bonuses.”