BEIJING -- Over 3.6 million Chinese women had received micro-financing worth 180 billion yuan ($28.8 billion) by the end of March, according to a statement issued by the All-China Women's Federation on Friday.

Central and local government subsidies contributed more than 12 billion yuan to this financing.

China began issuing micro-financing to women to encourage entrepreneurship and poverty reduction in 2009. The loans have helped boost the economy in China's underdeveloped western and rural regions, according to the federation.

Another policy benefiting rural women is the free screening of breast and cervical cancer, a program that has also been implemented since 2009.

So far, 32.49 million rural women have received free cervical cancer examinations and 4.66 million breast cancer tests, the federation said in the statement.

It has also established a fund to assist poverty-stricken mothers suffering breast and cervical cancer, by offering an allowance of 10,000 yuan per head. A total of 20,715 women have received the allowance to date.