Source : SCMP
Jane Cai in Beijing Feb 26, 2009
China Development Bank has been allowed to sell 610 billion yuan (HK$691.86 billion) of bonds this year after promising to extend about 1 trillion yuan in loans to finance the stimulus schemes of local governments.
The policy lender, which is being transformed into a commercial lender, announced yesterday that it had won approval from the central bank to issue 560 billion yuan of medium and long-term bonds and 50 billion yuan in short-term bonds.
The total amount, bigger than the 580 billion yuan issued last year, underscores the predominant role the bank will play in the country's spending spree to boost the economy.
"China needs policy banks, especially when hopes are on policies to help prevent the economy from cooling too fast," said Simon Gleave, a KPMG partner.
Beijing plans to reform three policy banks, including CDB, into commercial banks with higher profitability, more adequate capital and modern management expertise.
The bank, a 50-50 venture of the Ministry of Finance and Central Huijin, has signed credit lines worth about 1 trillion yuan with local governments in Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Hebei, Shaanxi, Qinghai and Guangdong in the past two months to fund infrastructure projects.
The bank is also the backbone of the country's outbound investment strategy, providing support to half of the US$60 billion slated for spending by domestic companies on four recent overseas resources deals, including Chinalco's US$19.5 billion investment in Rio Tinto Group.
Aside from policy banks, major state-controlled banks are helping to execute government policies.
The mainland would offer 130 billion yuan worth of financing support in the next three years to Taiwan-funded companies to help them cope with the downturn, Fan Liqing, a State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman, said yesterday.
The funds would be channelled through major banks, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (SEHK: 1398), which had extended more than 4 billion yuan in credit to more than 500 Taiwan-funded firms operating on the mainland, Ms Fan said.