BEIJING, April 22 -- China Development Bank, one of the country's policy banks, stepped up financial support for major water conservancy projects nationwide in the first three months of this year.

During the period, the policy bank issued loans worth 65.5 billion yuan (about 9.53 billion U.S. dollars) to boost the construction of these projects, it said.

The bank provided 4.7 billion yuan of loans for the building of water supply facilities in rural areas of southwest China's Yunnan, north China's Hebei, and northwest China's Ningxia.

It also released 3 billion yuan of bonds in March aimed at funding the country's key water conservancy projects in the long term. These bonds are valid for 20 years.

More efforts will be made to maximize the use and effectiveness of mid- and long-term loans as well as an infrastructure investment-oriented fund, the bank said.