Major Chinese bank an anchor for Africa

Value of loans for small and medium-sized enterprises outstrips target set by Beijing

China Development Bank, one of three policy banks in China and the country's largest foreign-currency lender, issued $1.168 billion in special loans to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa in the first 11 months of last year.

To November the bank had promised $1.65 billion in loans to SMEs in Africa, which beats the mark set by the Chinese government in 2009, when it vowed to establish a special loan of $1 billion to support the development of SMEs during the Fifth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

The bank, established in 1994, is responsible for raising funding for large infrastructure projects in China. These special loans have mainly been used in supporting infrastructure projects in areas such as agriculture, fishing and forestry in African countries. The bank says the funds have produced 71,600 job opportunities for African residents, benefited more than 458,000 rural African residents and produced trade worth more than $1.17 billion.

By November 2014, China Development Bank issued a total of slightly over $28.3 billion in overall loans to African countries. Most of these loans were spent in areas of infrastructure, finance, telecommunication, energy and mineral resources development.

The bank has invested more than $2.4 billion in Africa through the China-Africa Development Fund, and has become China's major investment and financing platform for Africa. Money to the fund was mainly spent to support local infrastructure, such as the construction of railways and harbors.

zhangyue@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/09/2015 page19)