‘Tibet’ to eliminate poverty this year to beat PRC’s 2020 deadline

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View of Lhasa from Jokhang Temple.

(TibetanReview.net, Jan12’19) – The government of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) has vowed to lift the remaining 150,000 people out of poverty and eradicate absolute poverty this year, thereby achieving the Chinese government target, first set in 2015 and reaffirmed during the party congress last year, one year ahead of the 2020 deadline. The idea is to make the whole of China a moderately prosperous society by that year. The TAR remains the PRC’s poorest region and achieving that target a year ahead of the deadline, even if only on paper, would be a positive mark on the local leaders’ record.

“This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and a key year for the country to achieve its goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects,” China’s official Xinhua news agency Jan 10 quoted Qi Zhala, chairman of the regional government, as saying in his government work report delivered that day at the second session of the 11th People’s Congress of TAR.

“This year also marks the 60th anniversary of democratic reforms in the region and a key year for the elimination of absolute poverty in Tibet,” he was further quoted as saying, emphasizing the significance of achieving the goal during this year.

He has said 180,000 people were lifted out of poverty in 2018 with launches of more than 700 poverty alleviation projects, training of 36,000 poverty-stricken farmers and herdsmen, and providing of 47,000 new jobs in ecological protection.

For this year, he has spoken of plans of 10 percent GDP growth, 13 percent increase in average per-capita disposable income of the region’s rural residents, and at least 10 percent increase in average per-capita disposable income of the urban area residents.

He has added that 50,000 new jobs will be created in cities and towns during this year. However new and the better-paying job opportunities tend to go to Chinese immigrants more than local Tibetans and this remains a perennial complaint.

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