The city government will do its best to withdraw 800 million yuan (US$100 million) in pension funds that it invested 13 years ago, and make up the shortfall if the money could not be recouped, Guangzhou Vice Mayor Su Zequn told legislators Saturday.

Deputies to this year's Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress quizzed department leaders about the money, the China Daily reported yesterday.

Zhang Jieming, director of the municipal labor and social security bureau, revealed that only about one-third of the figure has so far been recovered.

He said that hope of retracting the remainder of the sum was diminishing, which he blamed on an unexpectedly swift policy change.

State authorities allowed regional institutions responsible for social insurance and pensions to invest part of their funds in 1993.

The then Guangzhou Social Security Corp. of Guangzhou Labor Bureau spent more than 800 million yuan on 25 investment projects that year.

One year later, however, State authorities disallowed such investments and urged the money be recalled as soon as possible.

As the city's social security company had signed contracts for the projects, Zhang said, the policy change made it difficult to retract the money.

The municipal government set up its social security bureau in 1997, which took over the job of retracting the money.

Yang Chenghua, a deputy from Guangzhou Liwan No. 2 Hospital, said that many deputies hope related government departments will gear up efforts to get the money back via more channels, including legal proceedings and property auctions.

"Many projects depend on fiscal revenues, and the large pension gap will undoubtedly lead to inadequate support in other urgent projects," he said.

Official statistics indicate that Guangzhou's fiscal revenue balance surpassed 8 billion yuan in 2005.

Editor: Yan