Agricultural Bank of China opens tourist bank

HANGZHOU - The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) has established a bank specializing in financing the tourist sector, a booming economic pillar in the country.

The Hangzhou Cultural and Tourist Sub-branch of ABC was launched Tuesday in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province.

The bank will provide 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) of intentional credit line in the next five years with a priority to lending projects recommended by the provincial tourism department, according to an agreement signed between ABC Zhejiang branch and the Zhejiang provincial department of culture and tourism.

Feng Jianlong, president of ABC Zhejiang branch, said the tourist bank has an online platform boasting a cultural tourism industry database. It has a team of specialists to provide financial and information consulting services to cultural tourist developers.

The Chinese government has positioned cultural tourism as a strategic pillar industry of the national economy. Zhejiang, for example, saw the added value of the cultural tourism industry account for 15.4 percent of the province's GDP in 2018.

Feng said many tourist investment projects have financing difficulties, due to factors such as high investment, long return periods and high credit risks.

He said ABC is committed to investing in a government-initiated tourist development fund to cultivate a number of competitive cultural tourist conglomerates in Zhejiang.