Xinhua inks co-op deal with Agricultural Bank of China

BEIJING, Dec. 28 -- Xinhua News Agency signed a cooperation agreement on Monday with the Agricultural Bank of China on construction of financial information platform, and corporate and individual financial services.

Under the agreement, the ABC will provide a credit line of intent up to 10 billion yuan (1.46 billion U.S. dollars) to Xinhua in the next five years to support major projects including "Xinhua08", Xinhua's self-developed financial information service platform starting operation in 2007.

Xinhua will set up an information collection system in ABC, and through "Xinhua 08", Xinhua will release ABC's information to the international financial market and gather global financial information for ABC to help increase its competitiveness.

Lu Wei, vice president of Xinhua, said Xinhua is tapping into the information service sector, conforming to the globalization process and competition among world media.

"The cooperation with ABC is a strategic measure to protect national economic security and strengthen the core competitiveness of the country's finance," Lu said. The move would push forward the construction of Xinhua's financial information platform, he added.

ABC chairman Xiang Junbo said the two sides could use their respective advantages to build a platform combing information service and financial service, which would facilitate the development of ABC and Xinhua.