Projects Funded by T-Bond Issuance See Good Returns: Minister

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 17, 2002

Projects Funded by T-Bond Issuance See Good Returns: Minister

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China has achieved marked benefits by channeling the T-bond proceeds issued in recent years into a number of major projects, and there will be no problem for the central government to repay the debt, a senior Chinese official said Wednesday.

The Chinese government has issued 510 billion yuan of T-bonds since China adopted proactive fiscal policy in 1998, and is expecting to issue another 150 billion yuan worth of T-bond this year, said Zeng Peiyan, minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission at a press conference.

According to Zeng, the huge number of T-bond proceeds has been utilized in the areas of infrastructure construction, technical renovation, agriculture, forestry, and water conservancy, environmental protection, education and social security.

Zeng said the benefits achieved from the T-bond issuance have been both direct and indirect.

On the direct benefits, Zeng said that in recent years, the Chinese government has invested over 300 billion yuan in improving the power network in the rural areas. As a result, the rural electricity price has been lowered, and the rural market of electric appliances has been boosted.

On the indirect benefits, Zeng said that the Chinese government has used part of the T-bond funds to upgrade 3,000 kilometer-long Yangtze riverbank in recent years, which helped the country avoid a possible economic loss of at least 30 billion yuan during the 1999 flood season.

Zeng attributed the growth of China's fiscal revenue last year to the proactive fiscal policy that the government adopted.

Statistics showed that the government's fiscal revenue in 2001 totaled 1.6371 trillion yuan, up 22.2 over the previous year.

"Ten years from now, projects financed by the T-bond issuance will become the country's treasure," said Zeng.

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