China Development Bank (CDB), the country's State-run bank for public works, reported a significant rise in net profit last year, spurred on by the government's call to stimulate the economy by funding major infrastructure projects.

The bank's net profit hit 30.2 billion yuan in 2009, up from 20.8 billion yuan in 2008. Total assets rose to 4.5 trillion yuan at the end of 2009, compared to 3.8 trillion yuan a year earlier.

Despite rapid credit expansion last year, CDB's non-performing loan ratio dropped to 0.9 percent at the end of 2009, from 0.96 percent a year ago.

The average non-performing loan ratio for major commercial lenders was 1.59 percent at the end of 2009.

"The bank stayed focus on executing the nation's strategic priorities, and has played an important role in providing medium-term financing to State-backed projects," CDB Chairman Chen Yuan said yesterday.

China unveiled a 4 trillion yuan stimulus package in November 2008 when the global financial crisis was at its worst, up the slowing economy with the goal of propping many of the investments focused on infrastructure projects.

CDB, a former policy lender specialized in funding major public works, together with a raft of other Chinese commercial lenders, advanced 9.59 trillion yuan in new loans last year, effectively helping push economic growth to 7.7 percent during the first three quarters of last year.

"The bank's profitability is growing at a pace substantially faster than the average of the entire Chinese banking industry, indicating it has been a major beneficiary of the nation's huge stimulus package," She Minhua, banking analyst at Haitong Securities, said.

The bank, formerly a policy arm of the State, was transformed into a commercial entity in late 2008.

CDB has poured 78.4 percent of its credit into transportation, coal mining, energy, telecommunications and public infrastructure works, Chen said.

Some 70 percent of the loans have gone to fund projects in less-developed regions in central and western China as well as Northeast China's industrial base, he said.

Several other major commercial lenders are scheduled to release their financial results in late March.

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