[2][3] It has raised funds for numerous large-scale infrastructure projects, including the Three Gorges Dam and the Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

CDB debt is owned by local banks and treated as a risk-free asset under the proposed People's Republic of China capital adequacy rules (i.e. the same treatment as PRC government bonds).

[5] The bank provides financing for national projects such as infrastructure development, basic industries, energy, and transportation.

[7]: 32  At this stage, the PBOC usually set high yields and did not permit the apportioned bonds to be sold on the secondary market.

[7]: 34  Ultimately, the issuance of bonds allowed CDB to become a financially independent bank without the state's tax revenues.

[9] In 2005 and 2006, CDB successfully issued two pilot Asset-Backed Securities[10] (ABS) products in the domestic China market.

Along with other ABS products issued by China Construction Bank, CDB has created a foundation for a promising debt capital and structured finance market.

[7]: 32  CDB was one of the financial agencies implementing China's stimulus plan and vastly increased its lending for infrastructure and industrial projects.

[7]: 37–38 From 2009 to 2019, CDB has issued 1.6 trillion yuan in loans to more than 4,000 projects involving infrastructure, communications, transportation, and basic industries.

This could help reduce the growing economic disparity in the western provinces, and it has the potential to revitalize the old industrial bases of northeast China.

[7]: 158  Hu then leveraged his personal influence to approve large amounts of industrial loans which ultimately failed.

[7]: 158  Hu was removed from office in 2018 on suspicion of corruption and he was sentenced to life in prison in 2021 for accepting bribes to approve projects that should not have passed CDB criteria.

[17]: 155 As of December 2018, outstanding loans to 11 provincial-level regions along the belt amounted to 3.85 trillion yuan (about 575 billion U.S. dollars), according to the CDB.

The funds mainly went to major projects in the fields of ecological protection and restoration, infrastructure connectivity, and industrial transformation and upgrading.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt consists of nine provinces and two municipalities that cover roughly one-fifth of China's land.