South Africa’s state-owned development finance firm, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), has received a $50-million loan from a local branch of China’s state-owned bank, China Construction Bank (CCB).

The loan is expected to help the IDC to increase its lending capacity as well as recapitalising its export finance loan book, reported Engineering News Online.

The demand for development finance has increased massively following the advent of the financial crisis, according to IDC CEO Geoffrey Qhena, forcing the firm to seek additional funding in the international markets.

“Over the past year, our units have been receiving an unprecedented amount of applications so we have seen it fit to also go out and source funding so that we can increase our capacity to lend,” said Qhena.

“We also have an export loan book, which we believe this CCB loan will assist in recapitalising it since the demand for export funding has also increased from our front,” he added.