TOP officials from Tibet said Beijing would continue to pump subsidies into the impoverished region but signalled no end to China's hardline stance with its exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
The central Government hopes to push annual economic growth to 10 per cent for the next five years, Raidi, Deputy Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region said.
He said Beijing had earmarked funds of 2.38 billion yuan (HK$2.18 billion) for 62 special construction projects launched in Tibet last year. He admitted poverty was a problem. Over a quarter of Tibet's rural people cannot feed or clothe themselves.
Although Beijing claims to have spent 35 billion yuan in Tibet in the last 42 years, Tibetans are among the poorest in China.
Mr Raidi said that 67 per cent of school-age Tibetan children were receiving an education but presented this as an achievement. He said 10,000 Tibetans had been sent to attend schools in the rest of the country. 'A thriving socialist new Tibet is now standing firmly on the roof of the world,' he said.
The region now enjoyed 'a thriving situation of economic development, social tranquillity, political stability and ethnic unity'.
Gyalcan Norbu, chairman of the Tibet People's Government, said it was natural that nearly 40 per cent of the cadres above county level were not Tibetan, including the Party Secretary, because Tibet was backward and education standards were low.