A total of 117 million yuan or 14. 15 million US dollars have been channeled between 2002 and 2004 to the regions where the 22 Chinese ethnic minorities with a population less than 100,000 live.

The money was mainly used on the construction of infrastructure, such as water conservation equipment, power grids and roads, and other public undertakings, such as education, sanitation and culture, sources with the State Ethnic Affairs Commission said Thursday.

In mountainous Xishuangbanna Prefecture of southwest China's Yunnan Province, the people of Jino and Blang nationalities received fiscal input of 73 million yuan or 8.83 million US dollars from both central and local governments and found their living conditions completely changed.

In North China's Inner Mongolia, an aggregated investment of 285 million yuan or 34.46 million US dollars were used on 233 projects aiming to better the infrastructure facilities in habitats of the Ewenki and Oroqen peoples.

Last Wednesday, a development plan (2006-2010) designed to support ethnic minorities with small populations was adopted by the State Council who said that poverty remained an "outstanding issue" for those ethnic minorities, despite the progress made since the China's reform and opening up in the late 1970s.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, also announced four special substantial measures including improving the infrastructure for these ethnic minorities, optimizing their economic structure, promoting science and technology and training more qualified professionals.

China has 56 ethnic groups including Han nationality, which accounts for 93.3 percent of it 1.3 billion people. Most of the ethnic minority people live in the country's northwest, southwest and northeast areas, which are less developed compared to the coastal regions.

Source: Xinhua