The national social security fund, a major source of China's financial reserves, should be prized as an important guarantee for economic development and social security, said Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji Sunday.

Premier Zhu made the remark in a letter to the meeting of the board of directors of the National Council for the Social Security Fund (NCSSF) that opened on Sunday.

According to Liu Zhongli, president of the National Council for Social Security Fund, some achievements have been scored in the management and operation of China's social security fund within the framework of interim management provisions over the past year.

Currently, the NCSSF has initially established a direct investment operational system of the national social security fund and is working actively to prepare for the launch of the trustee investment.

By the end of last December, the total assets of China's social security fund amounted to 124.19 billion yuan (US$15 billion), realizing 3.08 billion yuan (US$374.8 million) of accumulative profits.

In 2002 alone, the country's social security fund made a profit of more than 2.1 billion yuan (US$241.8 million) with a profitability rate of up to 2.75 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2003)