Specialized agency to be set up to manage pension fund

The State Council, or China's Cabinet, is considering to set up a new body to manage the investment of the basic pension fund, Jinan Daily reported Monday.

Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission and Dai Xianglong, head of the National Council for Social Security Fund, have publicly said several times since last December that China would actively boost the pension fund to invest in the stock market.

Allowing the pension fund entering the stock market by certain ratio and according to certain standards is in itself helpful for the development of the stock market, Guo said.

China's soical basic pension fund managed by local governments totaled 1.8 trillion yuan by the end of 2011, said the report. 

Wen Zongyu, a senior researcher in SOE studies at the Institute for Fiscal Science, an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Finance, said maintaining value should be the top priority for the pension fund's investment in the stock market.