The Chinese government will work for great economic growth in the border areas within a decade by improving infrastructure and living standards there. Mou Benli, deputy minister in charge of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, announced that his commission launched a campaign today aiming at boosting border economies and helping the poverty-stricken areas become rich, as part of the government effort to develop the vast western regions of the country.

China's land border line is about 20,000 kilometers long, where there are 135 counties including 107 ethnic minority autonomous counties. Nearly half of the 20 million people who live in the border areas are members of ethnic minority groups. In 1998, the border areas reported a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of 82.6 billion yuan (about 10 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 1.1 percent of China's GDP. The GDP per person there was 3,983 yuan (about 480 U.S. dollars), 36.3 percent lower than the nation's average.

By the same year, about 14 percent of the villages in the border areas had no roads, 20 per cent had no access to electricity and 55 percent had no running water. "Economic development plays a key role in the stability and development of China's border regions", the deputy minister said. The campaign will focus on building roads, supplying electricity and running water, getting rid of illiteracy, improving education and disseminating sophisticated technology in these areas, he added.