OREANDA-NEWS. The Wanjiang Demonstration Zone, short for the Industrial Transfer Demonstration Zone in the Anhui Yangtze River City Belt, saw new loans and direct financing value hit 279.7 billion yuan (USD 45.9 billion) in 2013, accounting for 71.05 percent of the provincial total, local authorities said on Feb 13.

The figure was up 9.99 percent from a year earlier, according to the Anhui Development and Reform Commission.

Since 2010, the zone has expanded the volume of direct financing and diversified the way of raising funds, said a commission official.  As of December 2013, the balance of loans reached 1.4 trillion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 16.23 percent and making up 72.15 percent of the provincial total. In 2013 alone, the zone borrowed loans of 194.9 billion yuan, or 68.19 percent of the province's total.

Meanwhile, Wanjiang raised a capital of 84.8 billion yuan through direct financing, up 24.12 percent year-on-year. Hefei, Wuhu and Ma'anshan, major cities in the zone, collectively registered 61.3 billion yuan in direct financing, or 72.2 percent of the provincial total.

From 2010 to 2012, the zone experienced an annual rise of 34.27 percent on average in direct financing. It accounted for 78.61 percent of the province's combined volume in 2012, up from 67.51 percent in 2010.