China's Silk Road Fund to become investor in Indonesia's state pharma firms

JAKARTA (Reuters) - China's Silk Road Fund (SRF) and Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund INA will become investors in the Southeast Asian country's state-owned pharmaceutical firms, a deputy minister said on Sunday.

Both SRF and INA will become investors in the listed pharma firm PT Kimia Farma Tbk and its unit PT Kimia Farma Apotek, Indonesia's deputy state-owned enterprises minister, Pahala Mansury, told a news conference in Bali, on the sidelines of a G20 summit.

"We hope the investment partnership can improve the pharma firms' digital services, product development and also repair [their] capital structure," he said, without providing the investment amount.

SRF was set up in 2014 and is backed by China's foreign exchange reserves, China Investment Corp, the Export-Import Bank of China and the China Development Bank.

Previously in July, INA and SRF signed an investment framework agreement under which the Chinese fund aims invest up to 20 billion yuan ($2.81 billion) in the Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

($1 = 7.1066 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by Martin Petty and Kanupriya Kapoor)