Bhubaneswar, Sep 15 - South Korean steel major Posco will establish a social responsibility foundation to promote understanding on its Orissa project which is the largest foreign direct investment in India, a senior company official here said Tuesday.

'The company is going to set up a foundation to deal with different CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities like vocational training, health care and food arrangements for the poor people,' Posco CEO Joon-Yang Chung told reporters.

'The company will hire India's best consultants to set up the foundation and manage it,' he said in Orissa capital Bhubaneswar, after holding discussions with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and senior state officials.

He added: 'This foundation will be established for the local people... for the regional community.'

Posco, one of the world's biggest steel makers, signed a deal with the Orissa government in June 2005 to set up a $12 billion plant near the port town of Paradip in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur, some 100 km from here, by 2016.

The company last month said it expects to complete land acquisition by the end of this year and hoped to begin construction early next year.