BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Tibet has witnessed rapid economic and social development since the Chinese government decided to devote special attention to the region and get all the other partsof China to aid Tibet in the late 1970's, according to a white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council Sunday.

    The white paper, titled Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet, indicates that from 1984 to 1994, a total of 43 projects were undertaken in Tibet, with a total investment of 480 million yuan (58 million US dollars) from the state and nine provinces and municipalities.

    Between 1994 and 2001, the Central Government again financed 62projects in Tibet, involving an additional 4.86 billion yuan (588 million US dollars) in direct investment. Meanwhile 716 projects were financed and constructed with free aid from 15 provinces and central ministries and commissions, involving a total investment of 3.16 billion yuan (382 million US dollars).

    In 2001, the Central Government decided to further strengthen the support for Tibet's development by investing 31.2 billion yuan(3.77 billion US dollars) in 117 projects during the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), coupled with 37.9 billion yuan (4.58billion US dollars) in financial subsidy. Meanwhile, Tibet will receive aid from other regions throughout the country in the construction of 71 projects, involving a total investment of 1.062billion yuan (128 million US dollars).

    Statistics show that in close to 40 years since the Tibet Autonomous Region was founded, 94.9 percent of Tibet's 87.586 billion yuan (10.59 billion US dollars) of financial expenditure came from Central Government subsidies. In the last decade, well over 2,000 cadres at various levels have been selected and sent tohelp with work in Tibet, together with 10.166 billion yuan (1.23 billion US dollars) in capital and materials (not including the capital involved in the 117 projects supported by the Central Government in the same period).

    Since the early 1980s, the Central Government had worked out a series of special preferential policies and measures concerning the major problems in Tibet's economic and social development, says the paper.

    From 1965 to 2003, the gross national product of Tibet increased from 327 million yuan (40 million US dollars) to 18.459 billion yuan (2.2 billion US dollars), and the gross domestic product per capita rose from 241 yuan (29 US dollars) to 6,874 yuan (831 US dollars). A modern industrial system comprising more than 20 categories and with distinctive Tibetan characteristics has come into existence from nothing.

    There was no highway in Tibet in the old days, but today a roadtransportation network has taken shape with national highways and 14 provincial highways as the trunk lines, with more than 41,300 kilometers open to traffic. Construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway began in 2001 and will be completed and opened to traffic in 2007.

    The Tibetan people's material and cultural well-beings have improved by a large margin. In old Tibet, there was no school of the modern type and the attendance rate of school-age children wasless than 2 percent, with 95 percent of young and middle-aged people being illiterate. By the end of 2003, Tibet had 1,011 schools of various types and 2,020 teaching centers, with a total of 453,400 students, 91.8 percent of the school-age children went to school and the illiteracy rate dropped to less than 30 percent.

    The Tibetan people are now much better assured of their health than before. Infant mortality rate has dropped from 43 percent before 1959 to 3.1 percent, and the average life span of the Tibetan people has increased from 35.5 years to 67 years. Tibet's population has grown from 1.1409 million before 1951 to 2.7017 million, of whom the number of Tibetans rose from 1.2087 million in 1964 to 2.5072 million in 2003, making up over 92 percent of the region's population, the paper says. Enditem