OREANDA-NEWS. August 01, 2011. Chen Yuan, Chairman of China Development Bank ("CDB"), announced at the second-quarter working conference held in Suzhou that, this year, the Bank has conscientiously implemented the national development strategy and macroeconomic policies, controlled the overall amount, priorities and rhythms of credit extension, and intensified financing for restructuring, affordable housing construction and the efforts of enterprises to go abroad. As at the end of June, CDB’s assets totaled RMB5.7 trillion, its accumulated principal and interest recovery rate stood at 99.48%, and its non-performing loan ratio was 0.5%. In particular, the balance of loans to support welfare projects and international cooperation accounted for 43% of the Bank’s total loans, showing good development momentum, reported the press-centre of CDB.

As one major part of the Bank’s strategy for supporting welfare projects and international cooperation, infrastructure, basic industries and pillar industries have always been the priority areas of the Bank’s support. In the first half of the year, CDB granted 59.1% of its loans to coal, power, oil and transportation, agriculture, forestry, water control, communications and public infrastructure. It also granted 66.2% of its loans to the central and west regions and the old industrial bases in the northeast region. It supported the highway project in the Tibetan region of Gansu Province, the Huangjinping Hydro Station on the Dadu River, the Tebian Electric Apparatus, other major projects in Tibet and Xinjiang, and the major development projects in border areas. The Bank continued to support industrial optimization and upgrading and the strategic emerging industrial projects such as the Shipbuilding Investment Fund, the Chengdu Foxconn, the Tsinghua Tongfang, and the Shanghai Changxing Shipbuilding Base. At the same time, it also supported the building of low-carbon ecological cities, the integrated improvement of water environment, the taming of industrial pollution and the projects of recycling economy.

In the field of welfare projects, CDB has earnestly implemented the No. 1 Document of the CPC Central Committee. It rendered strong support for the east and middle lines of the south-north water transfer project and other major rural water projects by granting loans of RMB11.2 billion in the first half of the year. It has intensified support for the affordable housing projects, including the construction of public-rent houses in Tianjin and the renovation of rundown areas in Kunming, by granting RMB48.6 billion in loans, with the loan balance rising 71% or RMB44.3 billion year on year. In addition, it provided RMB56.2 billion in loans for the construction of new countryside and the development of leading enterprises, to boost the poverty alleviation demonstration projects in Chongqing. It also granted RMB45.1 billion SME loans, and released RMB2.52 billion in emergency loans to support the combat against drought and flood disasters.

CDB has made steady progress in international cooperation. In keeping with the principle of mutual benefit, the Bank has supported Chinese enterprises to develop energy cooperation in foreign countries, and boosted the China-Hungary economic and trade cooperation, provided special loans for SMEs in Africa, and deepened the building of the BRICS Countries inter-bank cooperation mechanism, the China-ASEAN Inter-bank Association and other multilateral financial cooperation mechanisms. As at the end of June, CDB had a forex loan balance of USD169.8 billion, with the assets quality continuing to be excellent.

In order to better serve the scientific development during the 12th Five-year Plan period, CDB, following the country’s 12th Five-Year planning, has strengthened strategic cooperation with national ministries and commissions, carried out developmental financial cooperation with various places and major customers such as Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corporation, promoted planning cooperation with priority areas and strategic customers such as Bridgehead for Asean Economy and Trade in Yunnan and Sinopec, and made steady progress in international planning. In the meantime, the Bank has strengthened long and medium-term risk management, evaluation management and comprehensive risk management to ensure compliant and steady business operations.

Chairman Chen stressed that as the next step, the Bank will continue to emphasize prior planning for business development, and tap its general financial strengths. It will optimize scale allocation to ensure the funding demand of priority industries in priority sectors, continue to intensify support for the construction of power, coal, transport and other major infrastructure, support the Western Development, and promote the improvement of farmland, water and welfare projects. Besides, it will spare no efforts to drive international cooperation and support steady and fast socioeconomic development with long and medium-term investment and financing services.