The new branch aims to help boost foreign trade in Guangdong plus neighboring Hunan and Hainan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

It will offer buyer's credits for exporters and provide international and domestic settlement services and corporate deposit services in both domestic and foreign currencies.

As a policy bank under the direct leadership of the State Council, China's cabinet, the Eximbank, from 1994 when it was founded till October this year, extended 205.5 billion yuan (US$24.76 billion) in loans and provided policy-oriented financial support for more than 90 billion US dollars worth of electronics, machinery and new- and high-tech products, Yang Zilin, president of the bank, said in Shenzhen Thursday.

The Eximbank has played an active role in optimizing China's export commodities buildup, helping exporters tap more markets abroad and backing Chinese enterprises in their efforts to establish businesses overseas, Yang said.

Loans to help Chinese launch businesses abroad now account for some 25 percent of the Eximbank's total credits, and the share would rise higher in the future, Yang added.

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2002)