Milestone for Tibet

Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said the meeting would surely become a milestone for Tibet's development.

He called on authorities at all levels to translate the essence of the meeting into concrete actions.

Since 2001, when the fourth meeting on the work of Tibet was held, Tibet had made notable achievements in economy, environmental protection, people's livelihood, among others, President Hu said.

Ethnic unity has been enhanced and major successes achieved in the fight against separatist activities, he added.

The central government has invested 310 billion yuan (about US$45.6 billion) in Tibet since 2001.

The investment aimed to solve the bottleneck problems of the region and was mainly used to develop agriculture, animal husbandry, infrastructure, science and technology, education, governmental facilities and environmental protection.

Tibet's GDP was expected to reach 43.7 billion yuan in 2009, up 170 percent from that in 2000 and posting an annual growth of 12.3 percent over the past nine years.

Tibet witnessed the fastest economic and social growth and most significant improvement of people's livelihood in the past nine years, said said Jin Shixun, director of the Tibet regional development and reform commission.

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2010)