Robotic arms assemble engines at a workshop of the Weichai Power Co., Ltd. in Weifang City, east China's Shandong Province, April 22, 2021. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)

BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The China Development Bank has stepped up lending support for technological innovation and high-quality development in the manufacturing sector, data shows.

In the first eight months of this year, the bank provided 330 billion yuan (about 47.5 billion U.S. dollars) in loans to manufacturing companies.

By the end of August, the bank's outstanding loans to the manufacturing sector amounted to 1.11 trillion yuan, up 15.8 percent from the level at the end of last year, outpacing the average growth across the bank's all loans in the same period, it said.

Of these loans, some 633.7 billion yuan went to strategic emerging industries such as new-generation information technologies, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials and new-energy vehicles, up 32 percent year on year.

Up to 88 percent of the lending to the manufacturing sector by the end of last month had been medium and long-term loans, a record high and an increase of 13 percentage points from the level at the end of 2020, the bank said.