A total of 9 billion yuan (US$1.32 billion) of local government bonds of China's western Sichuan Province are scheduled for sale on April 8, said the Chinese Ministry of Finance (MOF) Tuesday in an announcement.

The bonds, which is the fourth of its kinds in China, will be issued by the MOF on behalf of the Sichuan provincial government and take the form of book-entry national treasury bonds. Bidding for the bonds began on April 7.

The three-year bonds will be sold to investors between April 8 and April 10, and will become tradable from April 14 on the inter-bank market and securities exchanges, said the announcement.

The bond coupon would be fixed at 1.65 percent, higher than that of the previous three batches of bonds. Interest would be paid annually, said the announcement.

China plans to float 200 billion yuan of local government bonds this year, with the first batch of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region government, the second of Anhui Province and the third batch of Henan province issued on March 30, April 1 and April 7 respectively.

Four more batches of local bonds will be issued in the first half of April, said sources with China Government Securities Depository Trust and Clearing Co. Ltd., a non-banking financial institution in charge of centralizing depository and settlement for the inter-bank bond market.

The ministry said last month that most of the 200-billion-yuan local government bonds would be issued during the second and third quarters this year.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2009)