China's national pension fund aims to step up its overseas investment and to more than double its total assets over the next five years to nearly $300bn, the fund's chief said Monday.

Dai Xianglong, chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund, said the fund aims to increase its investment in overseas capital markets including those of the U.S. and Europe, and that it is considering directly buying stakes in unlisted companies as well as investing in overseas private-equity funds. Speaking at a rare media briefing, Dai said the fund hopes to increase its total assets to 2 trillion yuan by 2015 from 776.5 billion yuan at the end of last year.