China to fund UK fibre optic broadband rollouts?

Fibre optic broadband rollouts in the UK could be partially funded by investment from China's $410 billion (£265 billion) sovereign wealth fund.

Writing for the Financial Times, chairman of the China Investment Corporation (CIC) Lou Jiwei predicted a win-win situation in which Chinese money would be used to pay for infrastructure improvements, in return for stable financial returns.

According to Mr Lou, such projects in Europe and the US are "badly" in need of additional investment and China is keen to finance and operate these initiatives.

He went on to state the CIC is "keen to team up with fund managers or participate through a public-private partnership in the UK infrastructure sector as an equity investor".

Some £530 million has currently been allocated by the government to improve the UK's broadband connectivity.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition is aiming to deliver super-fast speeds to 90 per cent of homes and businesses by 2015, while the remaining ten per cent will be able to access minimum speeds of 2Mbps.