Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said China would deepen the reform of its rural credit cooperatives in order to better serve the farmers and rural economic growth.

He made the remarks during his inspection tour in central China's Hunan Province from Wednesday to Thursday

Wang said the reform and development of the rural credit cooperatives was of major importance to the financial systems in the country's rural areas and concerning the general well-being of farmers.

In China, Rural Credit Cooperatives are regional rural cooperative financial institutions formed by share-holding partners, different from the large banks whose customers are mainly in cities. They are major sources of agricultural loans.

(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2009)