Lhasa, September 19:

Nyema Tsering, Vice Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China, said that the expansion of the Qinghai-Lhasa railway line to Seegatse, a place near the Khasa border between Nepal, would help develop the whole South Asian region through increased trade and economic cooperation.

Tsering, who is also the foreign affairs head of the TAR, made this remark while talking to a delegation of visiting Nepali journalists “We plan to complete the construction of the railway

line within three years,” Nyema said. The Lhasa-Seegatse railway covering 250 Km is being constructed at an estimated cost of 10.8 billion Yuan. The completion of the railway would unite the TAR economically with the South Asian region, the TAR Vice Chairman, who looks after foreign affairs said.

To a query on the “secret” behind the speedy development achieved by TAR in such a short time, Nyema said the people centred policies of the central government was the secret behind the TAR’s success in different fronts ranging from infrastructure development to tourism promotion.

“Our head of the government Hu Jintao has come up with an effective policy to speed up development in Tibet and has developed a policy to invest Tibet’s annual earnings here itself,” Nyema said.

The stress on economic development and equality has paid off good dividends, he said, adding TAR contributes only seven per cent of the annual development budget, with 93 per cent coming from the central government, he said. The policy of the central government to raise the living standard of the people of Tibet has lived up to the aspirations of the people here, he said.

He said TAR had witnessed significant growth in the people’s income over the past year with the operation of the railway. The annual income of individual Tibetan farmers has gone up and stands at 2435 Yuan.

The income of people living in TAR has gone up by 17.2 per cent compared to last year, he said adding the annual average income of urbanites has gone up to 8,900 Yuan. He said that a lot had been achieved in the education sector also. Last year, the TAR government launched illiteracy eradication programme in 64 districts. The school enrollment rate last year was 96.5 per cent, he informed.

There are 1700 holy sites for pilgrimage and worship, he said. He said that the principle

of autonomous rule has been put into meaningful practice as 70 per cent of the employees in the TAR government are natives from Tibet.

In an apparent reference to the bilateral trade between TAR and Nepal, Vice Chairman Nyema said the trade between the two countries last year stood at US$ 170.6m, which is quite an achievement.