(2) Giving Priority to and Rationally Arranging Infrastructure Projects in Ethnic Autonomous Areas

    When making arrangements for infrastructure construction and exploitation of resources in ethnic autonomous areas, the central government appropriately raises the proportion of investment and loans from policy banks, and grants the local areas reduction or exemption from supplementary funding according to their different conditions. Starting in the period of the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957), the Chinese government has arranged a batch of key construction projects in ethnic autonomous areas, including the Baotou iron and steel base in Inner Mongolia, Qingtongxia Hydropower Station in Ningxia, petroleum exploration in Xinjiang and major highways linking Sichuan and Tibet, Qinghai and Tibet, Xinjiang and Tibet, and main railway lines linking Baotou and Lanzhou, Lanzhou and Xining, and Lanzhou and Urumqi. In the 1990s, large transport facilities were constructed, including the railway line between Zhongwei in Ningxia and Baoji in Shaanxi, and the Nanjiang Railway and Tacheng Airport in Xinjiang. Since 2000, the state has assisted ethnic autonomous areas to further convert their resource advantages into economic advantages by investing in the construction of a number of key projects, such as the West-East Natural Gas Transmission Project, West-East Power Transmission Project and Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

    The state has made special arrangements for infrastructure construction and the development of basic industries in Tibet. From 1984 to 1994, a total of 43 projects were constructed, with investment from the central government and assistance from nine inland provinces and municipalities, totaling 480 million yuan. From 1994 to 2001, some 30 projects were constructed with a total direct investment of 3.9 billion yuan from the central government, and 32 projects were completed with investment, totaling 960 million yuan, from the more developed areas in the east. During the period of the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005), the central government has invested 31.2 billion yuan in 117 projects in Tibet alone. (More)