To finance projects of a nuclear power group over the next five years, the?Bank of China has issued credit and loans worth 60 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion).

The bank, one of the country's "Big Four" state-owned banks, signed the cooperation agreement with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group on Monday.

Bank Governor Li Lihui said in line with China's mid and long-term nuclear power development plans, the nation's installed nuclear power capacity would reach 40 million kilowatts by 2020 and the installed capacity under construction stood at 18 million kilowatts.

The country's nuclear power industry will face an historic development opportunity in the nation's 11th Five-Year?Plan period (2006-2010), the governor said.

The group, which has successfully built the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station in Shenzhen, south China, is a central enterprise with a registered capital of 10.2 billion yuan (US$1.28 billion). Its total assets are 57.5 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion) and its annual sales income is over 10 billion yuan.

In 1985 Bank of China was the sole financier of the Daya Bay project which was the country's first commercial nuclear power source. The station went into operation in 1994 with an annual generating capacity of 15 billion kilowatt hours.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2006)