China's ethnic regions still have 11.7 million people living in abject poverty, accounting for 49.5 percent of the country's poor rural dwellers, a Chinese legislator said Wednesday.

Ismail Amat, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, reported to the committee that the figure at the end of 2005 was 1.8 percent higher than the previous year.

Though significant progress in these areas had been made in recent years, Amat said Qinghai Province and Tibet Autonomous Region in west China still lagged behind.

An autonomous prefecture in southwest China's Yunnan Province, home to the Suli ethnic minority, had more than 90 percent of villagers living in poverty. About 2.23 billion inhabitants in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in the northwest faced water safety problems, and 770,000 were in great need of water.

He revealed that in 2005, the local gross product of ethnic regions was just eight percent of the national total, and people in these regions only produced 29.4 percent of the national average.

"Lagging economies directly result in insufficient financial revenues, which makes eating enough their first concern," said Amat.

Other fields such as the education, health care and social security in these areas had all been affected.

Besides the historic, natural and social disadvantages in these areas, local government failure to carry out national policies and laws, and the misuse of funds were also to blame for the lack of development, he said.

China has 55 minority groups, and about five regions, 30 prefectures and 120 counties have set up regional autonomous systems.

(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2006)