ICBC Finances Shanghai's Infrastructure ProjectsThe Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) announced Tuesday that it will extend loans of 2.75 billion yuan to support the building of the Lupu Bridge and the Yangtze tunnel of the outer-ring highway in Shanghai.The term of the loans will be 15 to 18 years, the bank said. The two projects are the first in Shanghai to be built based on the "building, operation and transfer" (BOT) model, and also mark the first time the ICBC has financed a large city's BOT infrastructure projects. The Lupu Bridge will connect the urban viaduct of Shanghai with the Pudong New District, so as to ease traffic on bridges and tunnels in the vicinity; while the cross-river tunnel will connect the city's outer-ring highways with Pudong to facilitate transportation in and out of the city. Total investments for the two projects are 2.24 billion yuan and 1.73 billion yuan, respectively. A bank spokesman said that it has become an important credit measure for the ICBC to support mid-sized and large cities' infrastructure projects with long-term loans, which is expected to help the bank readjust its credit structure and improve credit quality. He said that the bank will make further efforts to support infrastructure construction projects, including transport, telecommunications, energy, urban power-supply facilities, as well as gas and water supply systems. |
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