The National Social Security Fund (NSSF), China's pension fund, is seeking investment opportunities in countries and regions along the route of Belt and Road (B&R) initiative, according to media reports on Wednesday.
The national pension fund is determined to "go abroad" and it has a pipeline of potential investment deals along the B&R route, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Wang Zhongmin, a vice-chairman of the NSSF.
"We are resolute in going abroad, but I can't disclose details of the projects and investment figures," Wang was quoted as saying in the report.
At the end of 2016, the NSSF had 2.04 trillion yuan ($290 billion) in assets under management, up 64.5 percent from the beginning of 2014, according to a statement on its website on May 10.
In 2016, it achieved returns on its investments of 31.32 billion yuan, with a return ratio of 1.7 percent, the statement said.
The fund has been considering overseas investment in recent years. On May 9, Lou Jiwei, the chairman of the NSSF Council, listed "improving and completing a strategy on overseas investment" as a top agenda for the fund, according to a separate statement on its website.
"[We will] access the trends of the global economy and market in depth … and increase the investment scale of allocation ratio [for overseas investment]," Lou said in the statement.
Wang told the South China Morning Post that the process going abroad will be a gradual process. "Chinese institutions should do businesses little by little," he said.
