Altogether 56 investment projects with an agreed capital of about 64.95 billion yuan ($10.66 billion) signed agreement deals at the Anhui Provincial Tourism Projects Promotion Conference held on Nov 18 in Huangshan city, Anhui province.

A strategic cooperation agreement was also signed by the Anhui Provincial Tourism Bureau with the Bank of China Anhui branch and the Export-Import Bank of China Anhui branch. The two banks promised to provide loans to 24 tourism projects in the province with an estimated capital of 6.45 billion yuan to help solve their financing difficulties.

Anhui province is leading the nation in financing tourism projects, said Chen Lei, deputy director of the provincial tourism bureau. He also said that the province aims to provide about 300 billion yuan to more than 200 tourism projects during the 12th Five-Year Plan period with an expected tourism income of 300 billion yuan.

In the first three quarters, Anhui launched 1,726 tourism projects, involving a total investment of 108.6 billion yuan. The province has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Anhui branches of Agriculture Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, and Export-Import Bank of China to finance outstanding tourism projects in the province. The total loans of this year in the province reached 22.15 billion yuan.

In addition, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China approved to open a trial project of 'Tourism Loans for Small Companies' in Anqing city and will soon promote the project in the province as a whole.

Officials attending the conference included Hua Jianhui, vice-governor of the Anhui Provincial People's Government; Zhang Wuyang, deputy general secretary of the Anhui Provincial People's Government; Hu Xue Fan, director of the Anhui Provincial Tourism Bureau; and Ren Zefeng, mayor of Huangshan city.

Zou Ping, vice-president of the Construction Bank of China Anhui branch, and Yao Qifan, vice-president of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Anhui branch, introduced the implementation of the tourism industry financing policies and innovative financing services for tourism companies. Xu Deshu, deputy mayor of Huangshan city, and Hu Zhinong, director of the Ma'anshan municipal tourism bureau, introduced local tourism projects at the conference.

Edited by Michael Thai, Huang Pei