Beijing sets out 10-year strategy to end poverty in Xinjiang

Beijing set out a plan yesterday to revive the far western region of Xinjiang in the hope that an economic boom will end incessant ethnic strife and begin a new round of development in the remote backwater.

At a conference chaired by President Hu Jintao and attended by top Communist Party officials that ended on Wednesday, the central government pledged to raise the per capita gross domestic product in Xinjiang to the national average by 2015, and eliminate poverty throughout the region by 2020.

Xinjiang's per capita GDP last year was US$2,898, compared with the national average of US$3,600, and ranked higher only than Inner Mongolia in China.

To achieve the goals, Premier Wen Jiabao announced that the much-anticipated fuel tax reform would be carried out in Xinjiang first. Beijing will double the amount of fixed-asset investment in the region in the next five years and offer tax breaks to a number of enterprises.

Under the new policies, the levy on oil and natural gas in the resource-rich region will be calculated according to their market prices instead of the production quantity, as was the policy in the past, Xinhua quoted Wen as saying.

That means the Xinjiang government's revenue from oil and natural gas production would increase substantially in the future. The revenue from the fuel tax is divided between the central and local governments.