BEIJING -- Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC) approved on March 4 an investment of 1.5 billion yuan ($238.12 million) in buying shares of Chongqing Xingnong Financing and Guarantee Co Ltd.

The investment is to support the mortgage businesses of the "three rights" as operational rights, forest ownership rights and homestead using rights in rural areas in Chongqing, the only municipality in Southwest China.

The corporation is the first rural mortgage guarantee company in China, having realized mortgage loans of 18 billion yuan by the end of 2011.

Zheng Hui, president of ADBC said the investment can help the corporation realize the loans of the "three rights" up to 90 billion yuan, marking the beginning of the reform in the country's rural financial market.

Huang Qifan, Mayor of Chongqing said 70 percent of Chongqing's newly increased financial resources in recent years have contributed to agricultural development, pulling down the Gini Coefficient, a widely-used measure for wealth divides, from 0.44 to 0.42.

Huang also said the mortgage loans of the "three rights" will powerfully boost the economic development in Chongqing's rural areas of which the market value can amount to 2 trillion yuan.