The China National Development Bank recently offered 4.6 billion yuan (US$ 554 million) to northeast China's Heilongjiang Province to finance three expressway projects.

The loans will greatly help the province in infrastructure construction and improve the provincial transportation facilities, according to provincial communication officials.

Over the past five years, the bank gave a total of 12 billion yuan(US$ 1.45 billion) in loans to the province, according to statistics.

By the end of 2001, the province received a total of 37.7 billion yuan (US$ 4.5 billion) of bank loans for sectors of road building, water conservancy, agricultural cultivation and urban construction.

In the next four years, the province will spend 36.8 billion yuan in road construction, according to Song Fatang, governor of the province.

( Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2002)