Measures on the establishment of enterprise annuities and on their management, which were formally put into operation on May 1, are running well and will contribute to the improvement of China's social security system, according to officials with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

Chen Liang, vice director of the ministry's pension insurance department, said Thursday enterprise annuities will help enhance the living standards of retirees, increase enterprises' attraction to talents, accumulate capital to support the country's economic construction, and promote the development of the financial market.

As a supplement to the country's pension insurance, enterprise annuities are composed of payments from enterprises and individual employees. Enterprises are required to entrust annuities to financial organizations for management. Employees can take all the money out at once or draw certain amounts every month from their individual accounts only after retirement.

Sun Jianyong, director of the fund supervision department under the ministry, said that to introduce enterprise annuities into the capital market would help maintain and raise their value.

"Banks, trust and investment companies, fund managers, insurers and securities companies all can compete for the management of enterprise annuities by offering professional and high-quality services," Sun said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2004)