Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) announced on Tuesday that it has planned 100 billion yuan (US$14.3 billion) in loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) this year.

Xiang Junbo, president of ABC, said the bank had reformed its small enterprise finance department, which was established in 2006, to offer better services to SMEs.

By the end of last year, the department had 39,770 customers with a credit balance of 334.5 billion yuan. After the reform, the department would be responsible for all SME-related businesses in ABC and make strategic plans.

The president said this year the bank would give full support to good-quality SME customers including companies with independent intellectual property rights and their own brands, energy-efficient and high-tech companies, stable service providers for large companies, and companies which had strong anti-risk capabilities and had been hardly affected in the global financial crisis.

(Xinhua  News Agency March 11, 2009)