The World Bank plans to provide loans to villages in Guizhou province to support village development there. It plans to provide a total of 857 million yuan ($139.93 million), benefiting 444,200 people in 238 counties.
The World Bank has a long history of supporting backward villages in China.
"The World Bank has been cooperating with China for 25 years to support China's development. But it is the first time for us to provide loans for some villages in China, and we believe it is a very innovative supportive method," said an official of the World Bank.
Guizhou province has the most impoverished people compared to those of other provinces in China. In total, 7 million people in the region have average monthly incomes under 2,300 yuan. It has three extremely poor areas: the Wuling Mountain area, Wumeng Mountain area and Guiqian area.
The loans provided by the World Bank will be put towards supporting the development of local agriculture, as well as to build organizations, frameworks and agricultural cooperative organizations.
Liu Yuankun, vice-governor of Guizhou province, said that the World Bank's support in Guizhou will be a good trial to seek the effective combination of a foreign funded poverty alleviation project and China’s poverty alleviation mechanism.
