Huang said during a meeting with delegates attending an on-going conference of the Asian and Pacific Regional Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA) that the rural areas are the key to China's realizing a "Xiaokang society", or a relatively well-off society.

Huang said China values the experience of other countries in agricultural credit, noting that the APRACA, a regional international organization established in 1977, has worked vigorously to promote regional agricultural development.

Margarito Bustalino Teves, chairman of APRACA and president of the Land Bank of the Philippines, said the current conference in China will enable APRACA members to learn from China's experience and promote mutual understanding and cooperation.

Based in Bangkok, Thailand, the APRACA was established with the support of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, aiming to improve the efficiency of the regional agricultural financial mechanism and make agricultural credit available to poorer farmers. It now has 54 member institutions in 23 countries including Australia, Bangladesh, China, India and Japan.

(People's Daily September 27, 2003)