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To accelerate the development of China's western regions and ethnic autonomous areas, China has invested 850 billion yuan (102 billion US dollars) in the construction of 60 important projects in its western regions since 2000, says a white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council Monday.

According to the white paper titled Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China, the Chinese government launched a grand strategy for the development of western China in 2000, which covers five autonomous regions, 27 autonomous prefectures and 83 of the 120 autonomous counties (banners).

In addition, three other autonomous prefectures are allowed to enjoy the preferential policies the state has adopted for the western regions.

The white paper says that starting in the period of the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957), the Chinese government has arranged a batch of key construction projects in ethnic autonomous areas, including the Baotou iron and steel base in Inner Mongolia, major highways linking Sichuan and Tibet, Qinghai and Tibet and main railway lines linking Baotou and Lanzhou, and Lanzhou and Xining.

In the 1990s, large transport facilities were constructed, including the railway line between Zhongwei in Ningxia and Baoji in Shaanxi, and the Nanjiang Railway and Tacheng Airport in Xinjiang.

Since 2000, the state has assisted ethnic autonomous areas to further convert their resource advantages into economic advantages by investing in the construction of a number of key projects, such as the West-East Natural Gas Transmission Project, West-East Power Transmission Project and Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

Moreover, the white paper says, since 1999, the Chinese government has launched large-scale transport infrastructure construction programs that were intended to benefit all ethnic autonomous regions, such as "Outlet Highways for Impoverished Counties", "Asphalt Roads to Every County in Western China" and "Inter-County and Rural Highways".

Roads in rural areas and county-level roads totaling 225,000 km have been built or renovated, with a total investment of almost 100 billion yuan (12 billion US dollars), which has markedly improved the formerly backward transport conditions in some areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, the white paper says.