BEIJING (China), February 24 (APP): Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region’s banking sector has stepped up efforts to support the “One Belt and One Road” initiative by providing loans to projects under the framework, head of the Xinjiang office of the China Banking Regulatory Commission Wang Junshou said.
Addressing a press conference here Friday, he said, the Xinjiang banking sector had provided funding of 293.77 billion yuan ($42.71 billion) for the purpose as of end-2016, up 16.2 percent compared with the beginning of the year, data from the office showed.
Under the framework of the initiative, the region has supported the construction of infrastructure facilities such as the Karakoram Highway connecting Xinjiang and Pakistan, and helped local companies including Xinjiang Tebian Electric Apparatus Co and Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co “go global,” Wang said.
In 2016, the Xinjiang office of China Development Bank provided $260 million to the Astana light rail project in Kazakhstan, the implementation of the first important program under the China-Kazakhstan capacity cooperation.
The Xinjiang branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China made loans of 127.57 billion yuan in 2016, mainly targeting the two big channels of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt and supporting 243 projects in sectors including electricity, railway and urban transit systems.
General Director of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Rural Credit Cooperatives Association Mi Li Gu Li said Xinjiang aimed to inject 1.5 trillion Yuan into infrastructure construction covering transportation, water conservation and energy.
The growth rate of fixed-asset investment was expected to be above 50 percent to realize the goal, she said.
