Beijing will invest more than 100 billion yuan ($12.5 billion) in Tibet by 2010 in a move by the central government's unprecedented level of support for the Himalayan region's development, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The money will be spent on 180 projects, including an extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway between Lhasa and Xigaze, Xinhua reported

Zhang Qingli, Tibet's Party secretary, said it was a very rare move for the Politburo to have commissioned such a study on public works in a region.

Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said the government investment would be the main driving force for development in the short term.

"Normally, regional planning isn't discussed in the State Council's regular meeting ... but Tibet is unique, and it has been assigned a key area of development," he said.

"Thus, the State Council regular meeting studied projects under Tibet's 11th five-year plan."

Projects include improving infrastructure to provide safe drinking water and electricity to more villages.

More than 10 billion yuan would be spent on education needs, social security services and maintaining ecological balance, Xinhua added.

The Tibetan five-year plan for the period 2006-10 set the targets that the nine-year compulsory education would be fully realized and more than 60 percent of students should continue their education in the senior secondary schools. Also, safety problems of potable water for both humans and livestock should be solved. And more than 80 percent of villages in Tibet will have transportation.

Hao Peng, the regional government's deputy-chairman, said that all these projects were designed with an investment of about 78 billion yuan ($10 billion) and completing the projects might need another more 30 billion yuan ($3.8 billion).

Hao also said that much of the money will be spent in rural areas in an effort to raise the income of farmers and herdsmen.

Wang Taifu, an economic researcher from the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, said that Tibet would soon witness its big stride of development with the support from the central government. And the pastoral region was expected to undergo a fundamental improvement, according to Xinhua.

Tibet saw average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of more than 12 percent between 2000 and 2005, while per capita GDP had exceeded US$1,000, the report said.

The opening of the railway is expected to improve the region's economy.

A total of 1.92 million tourists visited Tibet between July and December, up 52.5 per cent from the second half of 2005. The opening of the railway in July contributed to the tourism boom.

Source: China Daily - Xinhua