China's business press carried the following stories on Tuesday. China.org.cn has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

China signs US$20 bln loan-for-oil deal with Venezuela - China Business News

China has signed agreements with Venezuela last Saturday on a long-term loan-for-oil deal and the establishment of a joint venture to develop the Junin-4 oil block.

According to Xinhua News Agency, China will extend US$20 billion of loans to Venezuela, with the payment being one million U.S. dollars and seven billion yuan.

The Junin-4 Block is located in the Orinoco heavy oil belt. It covers an area of 325 square kilometers and has recoverable reserves of 8.7 billion barrels. China and Venezuela will form a joint venture to operate the block, which is expected to yield 2.9 billion barrels of extra-heavy crude over the 25-year contract term. Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) will hold 60 percent of the joint venture and Chinese oil giant China National Petroleum Corp. the remaining 40 percent.

China has previously signed similar loan-for-oil deals with Russia, Brazil, Ecuador, Angola and Kazakhstan.

China Minsheng Bank '09 profits up 53.5% - National Business Daily

China Minsheng Banking Corp. posted a 2009 net profit of 12.1 billion yuan, up 53.5 percent year-on-year, the National Business Daily reported Tuesday.

The bank's 2009 operating revenue was 42.06 billion yuan, up 20.1 percent from a year earlier. However, after excluding the proceeds from the sale of Minsheng's stake in Haitong Securities Co., the bank's net profit stood at 8.39 billion yuan, only slightly up from the 2008 figure of 7.89 billion yuan.

At the end of 2009, the bank's non-performing loans (NPL) stood at 7.4 billion yuan, with the NPL ratio dropping to 0.84 percent from 1.2 percent in 2008.

The bank's capital adequacy ratio reached 10.83 percent, up 1.61 basis points from a year earlier.

Ex-Google China sales manager joins Aibang.com - China Business News

Google China's former sales manager Song Zhongjie has been appointed President of local search service provider Aibang.com, the China Business News reported.

Aibang.com, founded by CEO Liu Jianguo in 2006, is a Beijing-based lifestyle information website, providing information on restaurants, hotels, traffic and other local services.

Last week, Wang Jin, former deputy head of Google China's R&D center, also left Google to take up the post of vice president in charge of engineering at Baidu.