Assistance Promotes Tibet's GrowthThe central government and various provinces and municipalities throughout China have joined hands in promoting the economic and social growth in Tibet Autonomous Region over the past five years.A senior official with the region made the remark at the second national work conference on Aid for Tibet hosted Monday in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, which neighbors Tibet. In line with the Tibet Assistance Policy introduced at the Third National Conference on Tibet in 1994, over 40 central government departments and 15 provinces and municipalities have sent some 1,268 officials and technicians to the region, according to Guo Jinlong, deputy secretary of the Tibet regional committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). In their three-year terms in the region, the officials have played a major role in introducing new concepts and technology to Tibet. Meanwhile, the central government departments and provinces and municipalities have helped launch 2,042 assistance and cooperation projects involving total investments of 2.47 billion yuan (about US$298 million). In addition, they have hosted many training programs for a number of officials and professionals from Tibet. Last year, the region's gross domestic product reached 10.5 billion yuan (US$1.27 billion), up 12.9 percent over the previous year. Over 380,000 of the 480,000 poor people in Tibet now have enough food. The income of the 44 welfare counties in Tibet reported an annual increase rate of over 30 percent. |
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