RURAL CREDIT III

closed

The Third Rural Credit Project aims to (a) stimulate growth and diversification of agriculture by expanding availability of medium-and long-term credit, and (b) increase the Agricultural Bank of China's (ABC's) operational efficiency through institutional development. Specifically, the project through ABC would use project funds to provide subloans to households, cooperatives, collective enterprises, state-owned enterprises and state-collective partnerships for investments in tree crops, livestock, aquaculture and agro-processing. This lending would be in six of China's poorer provinces: Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan in the southwest and Anhui, Henan and Hubei in the north central region. The project's technical assistance component for institutional development would be used to strengthen ABC's in-house staff training capability, and to conduct studies of ABC and the Rural Credit Cooperative (RCC) operations. The focus of this institutional development program is to assist in the Government's effort to reshape ABC's role consistent with the ongoing reform of the financial system.