Vice Premier Calls for More Loans for Varsity StudentsVice-Premier Li Lanqing has shown great concern over the issuance of bank loans to university students from poor families and urged relevant authorities to continue with the reform by improving the issuance, strengthening education, preventing risks, and making it more convenient for concerned parties.This was learned from a national conference on the issue which opened in Beijing Friday with participants from the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Finance. In a written instruction to the conference, the vice premier emphasized that the issuance of the loans is one of the policies to implement the strategy of "developing the nation through science and education." According to official sources, the government launched a loan program in 1998 and it was first piloted in eight cities in 1999 and then spread throughout the country. By the end of May this year, 534,000 college students had applied for loans, worth a total of 3.34 billion yuan, while 169, 000 of them had received loans, worth 1.26 billion yuan. In the first five months of this year, the sum of loans granted to the students rose 51 percent. |
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