Lou Jiwei
From Taighde
| Lou Jiwei | |
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| Company: | China Investment Corporation |
| Current Position: | Chairman
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| Current Government Position: | Alternate Member of the Central Committee
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| Last Company: | Deputy Minister of Finance
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| Nationality: | Chinese
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| Date of Birth: | December 24,1950
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Lou Jiwei is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the China Investment Corporation and is also Deputy Secretary General of the State Council, China Cabinet. Lou rose though the ranks of the government. He began in the Chinese navy, became the Deputy Minister of Finance and then took his current position of Chairman of the CIC.
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Biography
Early Life
Lou was born to middle level government officials in Beijing. He lived a comfortable childhood.
Lou, along with the rest of his classmates, was kicked out of school during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. He spent the next few years in the countryside. He left the farm that he was sent to in order to travel around to various cities. He joined the navy in 1968 and served five years there. After leaving the navy he worked at Capital Iron and Steel Corp as a programmer. During this time he realized that he wanted to attend school again. He was accepted at Qinghua University, a prestigious university in China, as a student in computers. During this time, he started to become fond of finance and economics. After graduating from Qinghua, he did his postgraduate work at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). His thesis was on econometrics and general equilibrium theory.
Government Career
Due to his degree in CASS, he was quickly accepted into a position on the State Council. He worked on the team that dealt with public finance and monetary policy. During this time, the government was trying to fix their policies in preparation of opening up some of their economy. He then moved on in 1988 to become vice-director of the State Commission for the Reform of the Economic System in Shanghai. He was put in charge of implementing many of the rules and regulations that he helped work on during his time at the State Council. In 1992, he was promoted to run the Beijing department of the State Commission for the Reform of the Economic System. He spent the majority of his time there working on China’s value added tax.
During the middle 1990’s, Premier Zhu Rongji had a policy of sending technocrats in Beijing to move to cities in the countryside to work on economic reforms. Lou was sent to the Guizhou to become Vice-governor of the province. There, he helped many companies to become listed or public. This position was considered to be a stepping stone in becoming a high ranking official in the government.
Deputy Minister of Finance
After serving three years in Guizhou, he was promoted to Deputy Minister of Finance and moved back to Beijing. He spent just less than a decade in this position. He spent a lot of time working on the tax system and was the key architect of China’s domestic bond market. Lou was responsible for China adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards in early 2006.
China Investment Corporation
In 2006, he started pushing for a new department to be created that would manage China’s vast foreign exchange reserves. He also pushed to lead this new department. After an intensive debate, he was granted his wish for a new investment fund, and was given the task of putting such a fund together. When this fund, the China Investment Corporation, launched, he was given the position of Chairman.
Lou is considered to have one of the toughest jobs within China at the moment. As head of the CIC he is responsible for making sure the CIC has an adequate return of 10-12%.
Political Career
Lou was elected alternate member of the Central Committee in October 2007. However, he came in third from last in total votes. Some have pointed out that he might have lost support due to the Blackstone Group Investment. He was previously a member of CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Timeline
December 24, 1950: Lou Jiwei was born in 1950 to middle level government officials.
1966: Due to the Cultural Revolution, schools were shut down. As a result, Lou had to leave school. He was sent to the countryside but spent most of the time traveling around to various cities.
1968-1973: Joined the Navy for five years.
1973-1978: Capital Iron and Steel Corp. He worked as a programmer.
1978-1982: Qinghua University, majored in Computers.
1982-1985: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a think tank, where he did his postgraduate work in econometrics and general equilibrium theory.
1985-1988: He then worked for the State Council, China's cabinet. He worked on public finance and monetary policy.
1988-1992: Became vice director of the State Commission for the Reform of the Economic System in Shanghai.
1992-1995: Stayed at the State Commission for the Reform of the Economic System but moved to Beijing. He worked on creating China’s value added tax.
October 1995 -1998: Vice governor of Guizhou province.
1998-2007: Deputy Minister of Finance.
March 5, 2007-Current: Stepped down from his position and took a new position as deputy-secretary general of China's State Council. He eventually became Chairman of the China Investment Corporation.
October 2007-Current: Alternate member of the Central Committee.
Personality
Lou is well educated and very much of a technocrat. His English is quite good and he clearly understands technical language in English. He is also a golfer.
Relationship with the Press
Lou has a very good history with the press. He allowed a profile of himself in the Washington Post in 1998. He is also willing to hold press conferences at major events and it appears that he speaks to the press on a regular basis. While we cannot confirm that he has been the source of leaks, we do feel quite comfortable in saying that the quotes from an unnamed source in many news articles regarding the internal debate on creating the CIC could only come from Lou.
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