Implementation of the newly revised Law on Regional National
Autonomy will support the country's strategic exploitation of its
western regions, according to a senior legislator.
"The revised law will help promote the prosperity of all
nationalities by narrowing the economic and social development gap
between autonomous ethnic minority areas and other places," said
Tomur Dawamat, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress (NPC).
He
was speaking at a seminar on the Law on Regional National Autonomy
which was held yesterday in Beijing.
The minority ethnic population accounts for 8.41 percent of the
total population which stands at 1.29 billion, according to figures
released by the National Bureau of Statistics after the latest
national census.
Over two thirds of the nation's minority population inhabit the
landlocked western regions, according to sources from the State
Ethnic Affairs Commission.
The majority of the 150 autonomous counties across the country lag
far behind the relatively developed coastal provinces and rely on
financial support from the government.
China has five autonomous regions in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner
Mongolia, Ningxia and Guangxi, all covered by the nation's go-west
program, which was initiated last year.
The right of national autonomy was stipulated in the nation's
Constitution as a basic political system.
The law has successfully translated this constitutional right into
concrete measures to guarantee the realization of the right, said
Wang Chaowen, a member of the NPC Ethnic Affairs Committee.
The Law on Regional National Autonomy came into force in 1984.
The NPC Standing Committee, the top legislative body in the nation,
adopted amendments to the law in February.
The amendments legalized preferential policies that the central
government gives to autonomous ethnic minority regions in the
fields of finance, foreign trade, infrastructure construction,
protection for the environment and cultural and educational causes
in the regions.
The amended law stipulates that various levels of government should
increase financial aid and investment to ethnic autonomous
regions.
The amendments, which focus on sustainable development, will give
new momentum to the economic development of minority ethnic
regions, said Zhao Yannian, vice-director of the Ethnic and
Religion Commission with the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
The seminar was sponsored by the United Front Work Department of
the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the NPC
Ethnic Affairs Committee, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the
Legislative Affairs Office with the State Council and the Ethnic
and Religion Commission of the CPPCC National Committee.
(China Daily 04/17/2001)