OREANDA-NEWS. November 14, 2013. “Beautiful China Tour • Beautiful Corps – Pushing the Construction of Ecological Civilization of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps with Finance”, the Xinjiang stop of 2013 “Beautiful China Tour” Green Finance of Industrial Bank (IB), was held in Urumchi.

IB Urumchi Branch signed a cooperation agreement with the Development and Reform Commission of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, promising to lend full boost for the Corps' construction of ecological civilization during the “12 th Five-year Planning” period and giving the financing support of not less than RMB 10 billion.

Pursuant to the agreement, both parties will, centering on the construction of ecological civilization and combining the system advantages of the Corps and characteristics of IB's green financial service, jointly boost the Corps's construction of ecological civilization, carry out all-round cooperation in the three key areas including low-carbon economy, recycling economy and ecological economy, and work together to devote themselves to the construction of banking-government cooperation platform for environmental protection. It is reported that IB has lend active support for the construction of “beautiful Corps” with green financial tools. By now, it has accumulatively provided financing of RMB 3.538 billion for the Corps in the area of energy conservation and environmental protection, and the financing balance hit RMB 2.253 billion at the end of September.

As a Class 1 institution of IB in the region of Xinjiang, the relevant person-in-charge of the branch indicates, IB Urumchi Branch will spare no effort to provide financial service support for Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in its construction of ecological civilization. In the next stage, the branch will, combining the development features of the Corps and the overall strategic guidance of IB, focus their financial cooperation in the following green and environmental protection areas.

First, in the area of urbanization construction, the branch will focus its support for the Corps to develop the industries in the process of urbanization construction including water supply, heat supply, promotion and utilization of natural gas, sewage treatment, and energy-saving building material.

Second, in the area of new industrialization, it will stress on supporting the green financial businesses in the transformation of coal resource, focusing on the industries including thermo-electricity joint production and coal gasification.

Third, in the area of energy conservation and emission reduction by enterprises, it will lend vigorous support for enterprises to carry out energy-saving technical transformation with its special products including energy performance contracting (EPC) financing and contract environmental service based financing.

It is said that, as the first and only “Equator Bank” in China, IB has always actively performed its social responsibilities and kept making innovation in green finance, incorporating the pursuit of harmonious unification of economy, society and environment into its own development objectives and committing itself to explore and practice sustainable development. By the end of September, the Bank has accumulatively granted nearly RMB 320.1 billion of green finance based financing to over 2,000 enterprises, with the balance hitting RMB 169.3 billion. The projects supported with such financing can save 23.2997 million tons of coal equivalents within China each year, reduced 67.1684 million tons of carbon dioxide, utilized 15.2174 million tons of solid waste in an integrated manner, and saved 255.79 million tons of water.