China signed an agreement with the World Bank on Wednesday to secure US$30 million in loans and donations - 20 million U.S. dollars in World Bank loans and US$10 million in donations from the Department for International Development (DFID) of the British government - to support its economic reform.

China's Ministry of Finance said the funding will be used to reduce poverty in China's rural areas, the public sector, social security and energy and resources management.

Chunlin Zhang, World Bank task manager for the project, said that the project is designed to assist government decision makers who are determined to implement a reform and development agenda in their departments or regions, but face a lack of technical knowledge and capacity.

Li Yong, vice-minister of finance, said technical assistance programs are an important part of China's cooperation with the World Bank and China has benefited greatly from them.

He said China had set up its competitive public procurement bidding and tendering mechanism and water resource management mechanism in the past two decades thanks to technical assistance from the bank.

The agreement was signed by David Dollar, country director of the World Bank Office in Beijing, and Zhu Guangyao, director general of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Finance.

Dollar said the project is a new step in the bank's relationship with China.

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