URUMQI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region offered financial aid for 17,800 impoverished Xinjiang students studying in inland areas in 2018, the regional education bureau said.

Xinjiang started the project in 2016 of offering 6,000 yuan (885 U.S. dollars) per year to Xinjiang students who study in colleges in inland areas and face financial difficulties. The funds for this project come from financial aid from 19 provinces or major cities, including the prosperous cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

The 17,800 students are mostly from Aksu, Kashgar, Hotan and Kizilsu prefectures, the most poverty-stricken regions in southern Xinjiang, according to the bureau.

The central government decided at the first central work meeting on Xinjiang in 2010 to set up a mechanism under which 19 provinces and major cities provide financial and technological support to Xinjiang.