Nine Chinese provinces and regions have signed over control of the government subsidies of social security schemes to the National Council for Social Security Funds (NCSSF).

The nine pilot provinces and regions are Tianjin Municipality, Shanxi, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Henan, Hebei and Hunan provinces and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

A circular from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security said central subsidies could be entrusted to the NCSSF in order to secure minimum return rates.

The assets will be operated by the NCSSF for a minimum period of five years, with the promise of a "good" rate of return and no management fees.

Xiang Huaicheng, chairman of the NCSSF, said the NCSSF would endeavor to increase the value of the central subsidies to individual pensions.

The market value of the China's social security funds was 255.4 billion yuan (US$32.74 billion) by the end of September with a return of 12.136 billion yuan for the first nine months.

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2006)