China establishes agricultural credit guarantee firm

China has established an agricultural credit guarantee company to help solve longstanding financing problems in agriculture and rural areas, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Thursday.

The company, which was set up by the MOF, the Ministry of Agriculture and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, is a policy guarantee institution and not for profit, the statement said.

The initial funding of the company was more than 4 billion yuan (610 million U.S. dollars), including 3 billion yuan from the central treasury. The rest came from 11 provincial-level guarantee institutions.

The company's capital will increase to 15 billion yuan over the next three years as more organizations join.

The tasks of the company include setting national re-guarantee business standards, offering re-guarantees to all provincial-level guarantee organizations and developing agricultural credit guarantee products.