China ramps up financial support for rural revitalization

BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities have called for better financial services to bolster rural revitalization and the national strength in agriculture.

Financial institutions should make themselves available to meet grain producers' financing needs to help stabilize and increase production, according to a guideline jointly released by five government departments, including the People's Bank of China and the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

More credit and financing facilities should be issued to help cultivate high-standard farmland, build water conservancy infrastructure, and advance breakthroughs in the seed industry and key agricultural technologies.

Better financial services should go into urban-rural integrated development to create a beautiful and harmonious countryside. The document also called on financial institutions to aid the areas and people that were lifted out of poverty.

The guideline said the country would make monetary policy tools more practical in shoring up agriculture and strengthening the coordination between fiscal and financial policies.

Official data shows that outstanding agriculture-related loans stood at 53.16 trillion yuan (about 7.46 trillion U.S. dollars) by the end of April, up 16.4 percent year on year.