Cooperation and Development—Celebration of the 20th Anniversary
of the Government Loan Cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the State of Israel
The Overview of the Sino-Israel
Government Loan Cooperation
Since April 1995, the Chinese Government and the Israeli Government (“the two parties”) started their
cooperation on bilateral government loans, after they had signed the First Protocol for Financial Cooperation
between the two parties. The parties signed the second Protocol, the third Protocol, and a Water-saving
Agriculture Protocol and relevant amendments for Financial Cooperation during the following years.
Through the implementation of the Protocols and their amendments, the Israeli Government has committed
an aggregate amount of USD 2.6 billion for its concessional loans to China. According to the Protocols, for
each Israeli Government loan project, the Israeli contents shall reach at least 30% of the total contract value.
By the end of 2015, there are more than 330 effective projects, with a total loan amount of approximately
USD 1.7 billion. The Israeli government loan projects are in the sectors, such as healthcare, agricultural
development, education and training, water treatment, communications, and high technologies, etc.
In 2012, in order to alleviate poverty and develop local agriculture in west provinces and regions of China,
the Ministry of Finance of China utilized an amount of USD 300 million Israeli government loan, to import
efficient water-saving technology and water irrigation equipments, which would be applied to the agricultural
development and water conservation construction projects in Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, Ningxia
and Xinjiang Regions. The loan will be repaid by the Ministry of Finance of China. This is an innovative way
of utilizing Israeli government loans and advanced technologies to develop agriculture and alleviate poverty,
and has been one of the milestones in the history of bilateral government loans cooperation.
The bilateral government loans cooperation has enjoyed sound and smooth development, with remarkable
achievements. The ministers of the two parties have attached great importance to the cooperation. The
successful implementation of bilateral government loans has been mutually beneficial. On one hand, it has
improved the domestic social and economic development of China, and on the other, also promoted the
Israeli exports to China.
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