China's Tibet Autonomous Region will grant different levels of health allowance to elderly people, with people over 100-year-old getting a minimum 800 yuan (US$103) a year.

The government of the sparsely populated region has worked out a subsidy scheme for long-lived people and will issue "certificates of longevity" to people over 80, according to Zhoigar, vice head of the region's Committee for Aging People Service.

According to the scheme, people aged between 80 and 89 will get a minimum subsidy of 300 yuan (US$38) and those aged between 90 and 99 will be granted 500 yuan (US$64) yearly.

Zhoigar said the money has already been given to the aged in Ali and Xigaze area, and people in other areas are expected to get the allowance soon.

According to latest statistics, 19,500 people out of the population of 2.7 million are aged between 80 and 99 in Tibet. There are 79 people aged over 100 and the world's most long-lived person is also living in Tibet, aged 115.

Official documents show the average life expectancy of people in the region has been raised from 35.5 in 1959 to 67 in 2006. In the meantime, some areas including Lhasa and Xigaze have seen growing number of grey population.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2007)