THE National Council for Social Security Fund, which runs the national pension fund, has selected 13 private equity funds to help invest 19.5 billion yuan (US$3.09 billion) for better returns, the head of the social security fund said yesterday.

"We have selected the best fund managers to ensure a good supervision of the pension fund," Dai Xianglong, president of the fund, told reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress in Beijing.

The State Council has approved 10 percent of the national pension fund for private equity investment, he said.

"We need to select and supervise fund managers with care," he said. "The pension fund is people's life savings and we need to manage the fund well."

Dai said in December 2009 that China's pension fund assets in 2008 were less than US$200 billion, which was below 1 percent of global pension fund assets. The national pension fund started to invest in stocks in 2003.