China will "steadily increase" the use of the social security funds for overseas investment in 2009, the National Council for Social Security Fund said on Wednesday.

The current ratio of overseas investment makes up 6 percent of the total social security fund.

The SSF's investment in stocks fell sharply in 2008 as the world stock markets tumbled. Since the founding of the SSF in 2000, it has invested 62.8 billion yuan (US$9.19 billion) in stocks in total and received 67.2 billion yuan by the end of last year.

By the end of 2008, the total asset value of the SSF stood at 562.5 billion yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2009)