Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC), one of the country's policy lenders, said Friday it had issued loans of 909 billion yuan (US$133.63 billion) to China's western regions since 2000.

In 2000, the central government launched a campaign for large-scale development of western China with the purpose to help 12 underdeveloped western provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to catch up with the more prosperous eastern region.

By the end of June, outstanding loans to the western regions totaled 352.2 billion yuan, accounting for 23.2 percent of the bank's total outstanding loans, 4.7 percentages higher than the level in 2000, according to a statement from the bank.

One of the key areas for ADBC's loans was rural infrastructure construction. From 2007 to the end of June this year, 1,546 rural infrastructure projects in west China received funding totaling 142.35 billion yuan, the ADBC said.

The policy lender had also contributed to the building or renovation of 69,720 kilometers of roads, 756 kilometers of power transmission lines, and power generation stations with an installed generation capacity of 3.94 million kilowatts in the west regions' rural areas, according to the statement.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2010)