BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The China Development Bank (CDB), one of the country's major policy banks, will issue loans worth over 64 billion yuan (about 9.02 billion U.S. dollars) to central China's Hubei Province this year.

The scale of the new loans for virus-hit Hubei Province will double compared with last year to support enterprises affected by the COVID-19 epidemic.

The loans will mainly focus on key areas including work and production resumption, poverty alleviation, Yangtze River protection and green development, traditional and new infrastructure, sub-loans to small and micro enterprises, high-quality development of manufacturing sector, and renovation of old urban residential areas.

The CDB has offered a special foreign exchange loan worth 500 million U.S. dollars to support Hubei's major enterprises in industrial chains including areas of chips, storage and display screen.

In addition, a sub-loan of 5 billion yuan will be issued to help private small and micro businesses in Hubei to tide over financing difficulties.