South Korea state pension fund to apply for more China investment

South Korea’s National Pension Service will use up its US$100 million quota to invest in China and intends to seek further permission to buy into Chinese securities, Bloomberg reported. The pension fund received its initial quota in March and plans to use it by September, Chairman Jun Kwang Woo said. The US$316 billion fund currently focuses its China investments on stocks, but plans to begin investing in bonds and alternative investments at some point in the future. The fund will pick managers for its China investments soon, Jun said. The pension fund invests in China through the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program, which increased the overall quotas allotted under the program from US$30 billion to US$80 billion in April. The South Korean pension fund’s investments into China come at a time when the mainland economy is showing signs of slowing and stocks are becoming cheaper.