The World
Bank launched on Monday a rural community development fund that
will provide farmers in 12 poverty- stricken villages with low-cost
loans.
The fund, worth US$1.33 million, was launched as a three-year
pilot program in poor villages in central China's Henan province
and southwestern Sichuan province, said Zhang Chunlin, a project
manager with the World Bank.
The British government contributed US$350,800 to the program, he
said.
Impoverished farmers have found that the country's banking
reforms, which involved closing many local branches, made it
difficult for them to get bank loans, said Liu Fangyu, an official
with the Ministry of Finance.
Meanwhile, China's poverty alleviation funds are mainly used to
build new infrastructure, leaving few dollars to support farm
production, said Liu.
The World Bank program will help villagers manage their own
resources and the affairs in their own communities, said Liu
Shuwen, an official with the State Council Leading Group Office of
Poverty Alleviation and Development.
The application for the program, made by the Chinese government,
was approved by the World Bank in November.
(Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2006)