OREANDA-NEWS. March 28, 2013. It is learnt that in 2012 Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) accumulatively extended RMB33 billion forestry loans to support the ten pillar forestry industries, a year-on-year increase of RMB6.2 billion. In particular, it extended forestry right pledged loans of RMB4,949 million in total and provided financial support to discount loan projects recommended by the State Forestry Administration, thus helping nearly 200,000 foresters increase their income.

ABC made progress in its specialized, intensive, large-scale and serialized development by supporting the construction of forestry bases and the development of forest product industry ABC Guangxi Branch financially supported production bases specializing in industrial raw material forests by various modes, including “company + production base” and “company + production base + forester”.

At the end of 2012, it supported 13 state-owned forest farms directly controlled by the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and 18 fast-growing and high-yield plantation projects. ABC also supported the development of leading forestry enterprises, boosted ecological forestation and helped foresters increase their income. In 2012, ABC Chongqing Branch granted RMB700 million loans to local ecological forestation projects. ABC Hebei Branch provided Farmer's Benefit Cards to foresters to support them to interplant economic forests and fruit trees. At the end of 2012, it accumulatively extended more than 2,000 transactions of micro-finance to foresters with the total amount approaching RMB70 million, which eased the capital shortage of foresters.

In addition, ABC intensified its efforts in innovation. It tried to establish specialized institutions and create regional credit products to serve the forestry industry on a pilot basis and broadened means of credit guarantee to improve its financial services to the forestry industry. In 2011, ABC Yongan Branch in Fujian Province established Yongan Forestry Sub-branch to provide specialized outlets, personnel and loan management measures to forestry industry. At the end of 2012, Yongan Branch’s balance of forestry-related loans amounted to RMB124.52 million, providing financial support to more than 100 foresters and forestry enterprises in total.