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The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced
on November 7 that by the end of September, the outstanding amount
of loans given to college students had reached 1.59 billion yuan
(about US$ 192 million), an increase of 172.3 percent over the beginning
of the year.
According to statistics, of the total amount
of such loans, 67.7 percent or 1.077 billion yuan came from rural
credit cooperativesŁ¬ while commercial banks accounted for 32.3 percent,
or 513 million yuan, of the total.
Loans with discounted interest made up 3.69
percent of the total, according to the statistics.
A PBOC spokesman said that financial institutions
have been very enthusiastic in cooperating with colleges and universities,
and hundreds of colleges and universities have signed agreements
with banks to provide financial aid to poor students.
A good example is the "golden key"
project launched by the Agricultural Bank of China, which by the
end of September had granted loans of 132 million yuan to more than
28,800 freshmen, or averaging 4,579 yuan per student, to solve their
financial problems in traveling, tuition and living, he said.
(People's Daily 11/07/2000)
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