A total of 4.5 billion-US dollars of loan assistance would be provided to China from 2006 to 2008, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Monday.

The ADB said in its Country Strategy and Program Update that the three-year loan assistance will continue to be focused on reducing the inequality between the coastal and interior provinces and the income gap between urban and rural populations.

Planned projects, about 85 percent of which will be located in the relatively deprived central and western provinces of the country, will support road and railway infrastructure to underdeveloped consumer markets, strengthen agriculture development, provide electricity to rural areas, and support integrated water resource management to minimize damage from droughts and floods in poor provinces, the ADB said.

The projects will draw on knowledge-based products that can promote growth that benefits the poor, including rural water management reform, agriculture taxation, town-based urbanization, distance learning in poor areas, HIV/AIDS protection on road projects, and financing compulsory education, it added.

"ADB is committed to continue our partnership with the PRC to sharpen the fight against poverty to ensure that the country's progress on alleviating poverty can be sustained. More targeted and innovative approaches are needed to achieve the MDGs and to help remote and disadvantaged communities and the large population on the brink of poverty," says Toru Shibuichi, ADB Country Director for China.

ADB noted the remarkable progress made by China in poverty alleviation, reducing the number of rural poor from about 250 million in 1978 to 26 million in 2004.

Besides the poverty reduction, the ADB will also support Chinese government to protect and improve the environment through soil and water resource management, urban environmental improvement, and clean energy and energy conservation development.

ADB also strongly supports the government's fight against corruption and its efforts to strengthen governance through training government officials on how to detect fraud and corruption and helping the government to strengthen its project inspection system.

The lending program will be complemented by grants amounting to about 11 million dollars annually over the three-year period, focusing on operational support and policy-related and knowledge-based products, the ADB said.

Operational support will include work on transport, energy, land management, water supply and wastewater treatment, urban development, education and health, and environment, it added.

Source: Xinhua