Israel will offer a preferential loan of US$400 million to China, the Chinese Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced Friday.

Chinese Vice Minister of Finance Li Yong and the Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz signed the two nations' third fiscal cooperation protocol in Tel Aviv Thursday, said a statement on the MOF website.

The preferential loan provided by the Israeli government would fund health and sanitation projects, agricultural development, education and training, sewage treatment, energy efficiency projects, mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other high-tech projects.

China and Israel signed the first fiscal cooperation protocol in 1995. Since then, the Israeli government has promised to provide US$1 billion in loans, in which US$550 million was in place, involving about 190 projects in 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2010)