The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced on November 7 that by the end of September, the outstanding amount of loans given to college students had reached 1.59 billion yuan (about US$ 192 million), an increase of 172.3 percent over the beginning of the year.

According to statistics, of the total amount of such loans, 67.7 percent or 1.077 billion yuan came from rural credit cooperatives?? while commercial banks accounted for 32.3 percent, or 513 million yuan, of the total.

Loans with discounted interest made up 3.69 percent of the total, according to the statistics.

A PBOC spokesman said that financial institutions have been very enthusiastic in cooperating with colleges and universities, and hundreds of colleges and universities have signed agreements with banks to provide financial aid to poor students.

A good example is the "golden key" project launched by the Agricultural Bank of China, which by the end of September had granted loans of 132 million yuan to more than 28,800 freshmen, or averaging 4,579 yuan per student, to solve their financial problems in traveling, tuition and living, he said.

(People's Daily 11/07/2000)