South Korea to Start $22 Billion Resources Fund

South Korea will start a 20 trillion won ($22 billion) fund to invest in global oil and gas projects, vying with China, Japan and India for resources as prices soar.

The state-run National Pension Service, South Korea's biggest investor with $235 billion in assets, is in talks with the commerce ministry and government agencies to start the fund by the end of this year, the service's chief said in an interview.

South Korea imports 97 percent of its energy needs and is following China, India and Japan in tapping sources in Asia, Africa and Russia. Shifting pension money from bonds to oil, which rose to a record this week, will also help boost returns.

``We have great interest in resource commodities, such as oil, gas and metals,'' National Pension Service President Kim Ho Shik said yesterday. ``We want to invest a lot in assets with higher risks and higher returns.''

China, the world's biggest consumer of coal, copper and iron ore, said in January it may use its $1 trillion foreign- exchange reserves to buy ``strategic'' resources.

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