April 27 (Reuters) - Canada will set up a sovereign wealth fund with ‌an initial endowment of C$25 ‌billion ($18.38 billion) to invest in major domestic projects, ​Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters on Monday.

The announcement, which comes just a day before Canada's fiscal update, will ‌be the ⁠nation's first sovereign fund.

"A sovereign wealth fund is essentially a ⁠national savings and investment account – designed to grow wealth for future generations," Carney ​said.

The Canada ​Strong Fund ​will invest in ‌major projects across the country along side private sector on a commercial basis and will grow in size through asset recycling and reinvestment, Carney said.

Many countries ‌endowed with natural ​resources, especially oil and ​natural gas, ​have state-owned investment funds to ‌manage surplus wealth. These ​sovereign wealth ​funds typically invest in projects and markets globally.

($1 = 1.3599 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by ​Disha ‌Mishra in Bengaluru and Promit Mukherjee ​in Ottawa; Editing by Toby Chopra ​and David Ljunggren)