Dubai International Capital (DIC) and the Hong Kong-based private equity investor First Eastern Investment Group set up on Monday a new fund to seek investment opportunities in Chinese companies.

The newly-launched China Dubai Capital aims to raise 1 billion U.S. dollars by October to invest in Chinese companies that seek business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) or a listing in Dubai, according to a press release from the public relations agency Brunswick Group.

The fund will focus on sectors such as infrastructure, resources, health care and the service industry.

Chinese companies are interested in the Persian Gulf, while the UAE was a significant channel of financing on the area's securities market, said First Eastern Investment Group chairman Victor Chu.

"The new fund will seek remarkable investment returns from the synergy of the two regions," he said.

Trade between China and the UAE soared 41.2 percent year on year to 20.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2007. More than 2,000 Chinese companies have been set up in the UAE, but none is listed in Dubai.

Formed in 1988 and managing more than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, the First Eastern Investment Group was the first Chinese investment bank that entered the Dubai International Financial Center. It has representative offices in Dubai and Bahrain.

DIC was established in 2004 as an international investment arm of the Dubai Holding. It manages more than 12 billion U.S. dollars of assets.

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2008)