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ABC shores up 100b yuan in loans for 2009

By Bi Xiaoning (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-11 15:04

Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) yesterday announced it plans to increase its agriculture-related loans to 100 billion yuan ($14.59 billion) next year, which will occupy over half of the bank's new loans.

ABC aims to issue 20 million credit cards in 2009 and 100 million more in the coming three years, to benefit half of the 220 million farmers in the country. So far, the bank has issued about 7.67 million credit cards to 123,000 farmers.

The bank said it would actively support leading companies engaged in agricultural industrialization, aiming to serve 90 percent of country-level industry companies and 60 percent of province-level ones by 2011. Meanwhile, the bank will prepare 10 billion yuan earmarked for upgrading some wholesale markets.

The bank will also support the upgrade of power grids in urban and rural areas, the construction of transportation and medium- and large-scale irrigation projects, as well as the development of clean energy in rural areas, including methane, and wind and solar power.

In addition, the bank will offer mortgage loans for migrant workers to buy houses in cities and the residents in towns to buy low-cost housing.