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The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) has agreed to give 12 billion yen (US$104 million) in Japanese loans for tree planting in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, North China's Shanxi Province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The bank yesterday signed lending agreements with the finance bureaux of the two provinces and the autonomous region in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi.
The loans are part of the fourth batch of Japanese yen loans for the Chinese government and will be used to plant 300,000 hectares of trees in 75 counties and banners in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, an official with the bank said.
The loans will also be used to expand tree nursery bases in those areas, the official said.
The tree planting projects will be helpful in reducing soil erosion to prevent more land from becoming desert.
They will also help expand arable land areas and improve people's living standards, the official said.
As one of the major channels for foreign government loans which the foreign countries entrust to the Chinese Government to be handed on for use in specific projects, the China Exim Bank has always concentrated on funding large infrastructure projects in the transport, energy, urban construction and environmental protection areas, according to Yang Zilin, president of the bank.
The bank signed a similar lending contract with Guizhou Province to provide 6.27 billion yen (US$53.5 million) in Japanese loans to its environmental project.
(China Daily 06/15/2001)
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