The Anhui Provincial Government on Wednesday launched bonds worth 4 billion yuan (US$585.2 million) on the market, the second batch of 200-billion-yuan in Chinese local government bonds issued this year.

The three-year bonds will be sold from April 1 to 3, and will become tradable on April 8 on the inter-bank market and securities exchanges, said a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Wednesday.

The bonds have a fixed rate of 1.6 percent, with interest to be paid annually.

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region government issued the first batch of local government bonds last week.

The ministry statement said Henan Province will launch bonds on April 3 followed by Sichuan Province on April 7.

The ministry said most of the local government bonds would be issued during the second and third quarters this year.

All such bonds would be issued by the MOF on behalf of the local government and take the form of book-entry national treasury bonds.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2009)