China policy bank lends more to agriculture in 2015

A worker collects rice at a corn processing factory in Linghai, Northeast China's Liaoning province, Nov 19, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING -- The Agricultural Development Bank of China, a major policy bank, provided more financial supports to China's agriculture in 2015.

The bank poured 780.34 billion yuan (nearly $120 billion) into the sector last year, more than double that of 2014, Xie Xuezhi, the bank's board chairman said Sunday.

The surging lending marked increasing efforts from the government to modernize agriculture and boost rural development. In a tone-setting official document released Wednesday, policymakers vowed to make more efforts to improve the sector partly by promoting reforms to step up modernization.

The bank's yuan-denominated outstanding loans stood at 3.44 trillion yuan at the end of 2015, up 21.54 percent year on year, and its total assets amounted to 4.18 trillion yuan.