The recipients are Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and the Tibet Autonomous Region, which are targeted by the central bank for wide-ranging support in an ambitious regional development program.

The loans issued by the country's commercial banks to the four regions will be increased by 54 billion yuan.

Outlining new features of central bank's support to the four western regions this year, Wang Hongzhang, director of the ChengduBranch of the People's Bank of China, said priority will be given to pillar trades, key enterprises and key projects.

Other major aspects include industrialization of agriculture, small and medium-sized technology-intensive enterprises, foreign trade and areas inhabited by ethnic groups, he added.

Statistics showed the central bank provided 79.3 billion yuan in loan to the four regions last year.

(People's Daily March 3, 2002)