The government should set up a State-level industrial fund to support Chinese companies' overseas development of mining resources, Zhou Zhongshu, president of China Minmetals Corp, told reporters on Friday on the sidelines of the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

He proposed part of the country's US$1.95 trillion foreign exchange reserve could be used, along with other State or private capital, to set up the large-scale fund.

The fund would help satisfy domestic enterprises' thirst for funding of resource development and enhance their competitiveness in the international market, Zhou said.

(China Daily March 6, 2009)