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China increases preferential credit to ASEAN

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-24 21:51

China will raise the preferential part of the commercial credit it offers to Southeast Asian nations by $5 billion, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday.

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The perferential part of the $15-billion credit, as a result, will increase to $6.7 billion, Wen said at a summit with dialogue partners from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Hua Hin, Thailand.

"We made the offer to demonstrate our support for China-ASEAN cooperation in infrastructure construction," he said.

China unveiled the plan to offer $15 billion of commercial credit to the ASEAN countries in April. The credit is to be provided in the next three to five years.

In a move to showcase China's efforts to further ties with its Southeast Asian neighbors, China has also rolled out a plan to set up a China-ASEAN investment cooperation fund of $10 billion. The fund is designed to promote cooperation on infrastructure construction, energy and resources, information and communications.

Wen said at the summit Saturday that the first $1 billion of the fund was close to being in place.

The Chinese premier also made a number of other proposals to advance cooperation with the ASEAN in fields such as the economy, finance, trade, environment, rural development and regional cooperation.