China pledged to boost the social and economic development of
its remote and poor border regions, under a plan unveiled by the
central government on Friday.
China will try to "elevate the overall social and economic
status of border counties to the average level of the provinces and
autonomous regions in which they are located", according to the
plan titled "revitalizing the borders and enriching the
people".
The plan, which will run until 2010, said central and local
governments will increase investment in "border issues, welfare and
infrastructure construction in border regions".
Financial institutions will have to actively respond to
legitimate needs for loans in border regions and policy banks will
give preferential treatment to these regions in infrastructure
construction, the plan said.
China will also upgrade straw dwellings and dilapidated
buildings in the regions, in a step-up effort to establish a
minimum guaranteed living standard.
In April, the central government said it would dole out 300
million yuan (US$38.8 million) every year for the next four years
into the development of 22 ethnic minority groups.
Most ethnic minority groups live in impoverished western regions
and border areas in 10 provinces or autonomous regions such as
southwestern Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet and northwestern Xinjiang and
northern Inner Mongolia.
They had an annual per-capita net income of 884 yuan at the end
of 2003, far below the average of 2,622 yuan for rural residents,
according to statistics from the State Ethnic Affairs
Commission.
(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2007)