Canadian Foreign Minister Peter Mackay Sunday announced more than 40 million Canadian dollars (about US$36 million) to help microcredit projects in developing countries.

Mackay made the announcement in Halifax, an Atlantic port city, where about 2,000 people gathered for the start of the four-day Global Microcredit Summit.

Microcredit is a banking system whereby institutions give small loans to people who do not qualify for a bank loan because they have no credit history.

MacKay said the Montreal-based Development International Desjardins, the Canadian Co-operative Association and Oxfam-Quebec would each receive funding to build on their respective microfinance programs.

In turn, the three non-governmental organizations are planning to help would-be entrepreneurs in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Mackay hailed the importance of microfinance as an important tool to help lift people out of poverty, singling out its usefulness to women in developing countries.

With these loans, people living in poverty can generate income for themselves, their families and their communities, he said.

Recipients can be people living in extreme poverty who live on less than US$1 a day, or those who simply do not qualify for credit.

The loans, ranging in value from 50 dollars to thousands of dollars, have low interest rates and are reported to have a high repayment rate of around 97 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2006)