BEIJING - The China Development Bank, one of the country's policy banks, has scaled up its financial support for the ecological protection of the Yellow River, the country's second-longest river.

As of Aug 10, the policy bank has issued medium and long term loans worth 40 billion yuan ($5.6 billion) to support the construction of major Yellow River ecological conservation and restoration projects, it said.

The projects have focused mainly on comprehensive improvement, the conservation and use of water resources, the prevention and control of natural disasters, and pollution treatment, it said.

The bank has pledged to continue to help solve financing difficulties facing the ecological protection of the Yellow River.

In the first half of this year, the policy bank issued loans worth 110.2 billion yuan to boost the construction of major water conservancy projects nationwide, data showed last month.