Foreign reporters visit Tibet

A delegation of foreign reporters based in China on a visit to Tibet organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs left the autonomous region on June 3 after a five-day visit.

During their visit to Tibet, the delegation visited welfare housing projects, specialty industries, urban infrastructure as well as the Potala Palace, Tibet University, Lhasa Railway Station and a factory of Damxung-based 5100 Tibet Spring Company in Lhasa and Shigatse. They also made on-site visits that highlighted Tibet's economic and social development since China implemented the western development strategy.

On June 28, Hao Peng, deputy secretary of the Party in the Tibet Autonomous Region and deputy chairman of the regional government, met with the delegation and received an interview.

Hao pointed out while answering a question from the New York Times on how to take into account both the interests of grassroots-level people and local economic and social development that people from various ethnic groups in Tibet have gained pragmatic benefits from the 10-year implementation of the western development plan. Particularly, the per capita net incomes of pastoral and agricultural farmers increased from 1,258 yuan a decade ago to 3,532 yuan in 2009, up by 280 percent.

Over the past 10 years, the central government has invested an enormous amount of funds to improve water, electricity, road, education, hygiene and other infrastructure in Tibet's agricultural and pastoral areas, which has greatly enhanced production and the living standards of people in agricultural and pastoral areas.

As the coverage of educational, medical, and social security, and other types of financial subsidy policies continues to expand, the amount of subsidies received by agricultural and pastoral farmers have been on the rise over the recent years, helping much to ease living concerns of agricultural and pastoral farmers.

To improve the quality of labor in Tibet, the central government allocates more than 100 million yuan per year to provide agricultural and pastoral farmers with free skills training. The central government also formulated detailed policies requiring that a certain percentage of workers at major projects and infrastructure projects must be local agricultural and pastoral farmers. Over the next 10 years, the central government will focus on further improving the living and production conditions in agricultural and pastoral areas and helping agricultural and pastoral farmers to increase revenues.