The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) announced on August 15 that, in the coming five years, it plans to put 100 billion yuan (about US dollars 12.2 billion) of project loans into key road construction projects throughout the country.

A bank spokesman said that since 1998 the ICBC has granted loans of over 30 billion yuan to road projects each year, with an accumulated amount of 106.5 billion yuan, making a great contribution to the state's economic development.

The bank has also paid special attention to the management of the loans. By the end of July this year, of the outstanding road project loans of 82.2 billion yuan, only 100 million was overdue, a rate of only 0.12 percent, while the interest collection rate has remained at 100 percent.

He said that over the past five years the ICBC has contracted project loans of 180 billion yuan for over 900 roads, involving a total road distance of 25,000 km.

(People's Daiy 08/16/2001)