(9) Pairing off More Developed Areas and Ethnic Autonomous Areas for Aid

    The Chinese government encourages better-off areas and ethnic groups to help those that are not well-off yet, and attain common prosperity this way. Since the end of the 1970s, the Chinese government has organized the more developed areas along the eastern coast to provide corresponding aid to western areas and help ethnic minority areas develop their economies and public services. In 1996, corresponding assistance was made more specific: Beijing is to assist Inner Mongolia; Shandong, Xinjiang; Fujian, Ningxia; and Guangdong, Guangxi. As regards Tibet, it receives assistance from all the other areas of the country. From 1994 to 2001, 15 assistance-providing provinces, and ministries and commissions under the State Council gave assistance gratis for the construction of 716 projects, with the input of funds totaling 3.16 billion yuan (excluding investment from the central government. Same below). During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, Tibet received assistance and grants totaling 1.062 billion yuan from all over the country for the construction of 71 projects.

    (10) Giving Care to Special Needs of Ethnic Minorities in Production and Living

    Respecting the customs of ethnic minorities, and to meet their needs for special necessities in production and living, the state has adopted a special policy for their trade and production of necessities. In 1963, the state introduced preferential policies for ethnic minority enterprises in profit retention, self-owned funds and price subsidies. In June 1997, the state promulgated a new preferential policy for ethnic minorities' trade and production of necessities for them, which provided that, during the period of the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000), the People's Bank of China would set aside 100 million yuan every year for loans with discounted interest for the construction of trade networks for ethnic minorities and technological renovation of enterprises designated to turn out necessities for ethnic minorities. It also stipulated that state-owned trade businesses and grass-root supply and marketing cooperatives below the county level (not including counties) would be exempt from value added tax in ethnic minority areas. By the end of 2003, there were 1,378 designated manufacturers of special necessities for ethnic minorities in China, which enjoyed preferential policies concerning working capital loan rates, technological renovation loans with discounted interest, and reduction of and exemption from taxes. Considering the importance of special necessities such as tea in the everyday life of some ethnic minorities, the state established a brick-tea reserve system during the period of the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1991-1995), to guarantee the stable supply of such tea. In 2002, the Measures for Administration of National Brick-Tea Reserve was formulated, providing for the management of the reserve of brick-tea raw materials and products, and credit support to units that store the relevant materials. It also provided that the central exchequer should pay the interest on the loans used for the reserve of brick-tea materials. (More)