South China's Guangdong Province will pour about 300 million yuan (37.5 million U.S. dollars) in vocational education in its underdeveloped eastern region in the next five years.

The provincial government will investment 200 million yuan (25 million U.S. dollars) to build a new senior polytechnical school that can accommodate more than 10,000 students in Shantou City.

The government will also allocate 20 million yuan (2.5 million U.S. dollars) to Shantou, Shanwei, Chaozhou and Jieyang each for expanding vocational schools.

The eastern part of Guangdong has a population of 15.8 million, or 17.3 percent of Guangdong's total, with its gross domestic product accounting for 6.9 percent of that of Guangdong.

Vocational education is a good way to transfer the region's rich labor resources from limited farmland, according to experts at a recent conference on promoting the development of the eastern region.

Besides building and expanding vocational schools, the provincial government will also set up a training center for vocational education in Shanwei, Chaozhou and Jieyang.

The provincial government will invest 170 billion yuan (21.2 billion U.S. dollars) in industry, transportation, energy and agriculture in the eastern area to promote its economic development in the 2006-2010 period.

Source: Xinhua