Millions of low-income residents in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have received a huge boost as billions of yuan in government funds are being handed out to improve living standards.

The regional government of Xinjiang last week announced a series of social security and welfare polices to aid people who face financial hardship.

The package of measures is designed to improve basic living standards, provide condolence grants and subsidize pensioners and extend an increase in the pay of village cadres.

At least 1 billion yuan (US$146.8 million) extra money will be invested in the package annually, based on calculations made by China Daily.

The announcements came only a week after Zhang Chunxian, the Party chief of Xinjiang, promised at a closed Party conference to increase the incomes of Xianjiang residents.

Zhang said the move would represent a major breakthrough in improving local residents' livelihoods, local media reported last week.

He initially pledged billions of yuan to guarantee a basic living for those on low incomes and later widened the scope of the policy to include all residents of Xinjiang, official media reported.

Ma Wenhua, a 73-year old villager from a rural area near Changji city of Xinjiang, said she planned to use the extra income the family receives to give her 19-year old grandson better food.

"It's time for him to develop physically and he needs to eat well," Ma said.

The four family members in Ma's household, which includes her husband, daughter-in-law and grandson, currently receive government aid providing a basic standard of living and they are all now eligible to receive an additional 10 yuan per month.

"My husband has been bedridden for years and my daughter-in-law doesn't have a permanent job," Ma said. "The increase in our income will also help buy medicine."

There have seldom been policies of benefit to such a large number of people in Xinjiang, said Ji Sulin, a professor at the Party School in Xinjiang.

"The people who receive aid to guarantee daily essentials live at the very bottom of society," Ji said. "The growth in aid will ease their financial hardships."

In regard to village heads receiving a pay raise, Ji said it would have an encouraging effect on them as they seek to maintain stability in the region.

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is the largest Chinese administrative division and covers an area of 1.66 million sq km, one sixth of the country's territory.

(China Daily August 2, 2010)