Beijing will earmark billions of yuan and introduce more preferential policies to speed up the development of Xinjiang as the leadership struggles to deal with ethnic tensions there, according to officials.
The unprecedented handouts - which will be used to speed up several key industries such as energy, tourism, steel, modern agriculture, and environment protection and recycling - are part of a new economic development plan to be worked out at a conference at the end of next month, said officials with knowledge of the plan who did not want to be named.
The Central Work Conference on Xinjiang will be chaired by President and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao and attended by all Politburo members, central government ministers, and regional party and government heads.
The meeting comes after Zhang Chunxian was named the region's new party secretary at the weekend, which analysts said paved the way for the implementation of a new developmental strategy for the restive remote region.
The money in the handouts could be as much as twice Xinjiang's annual revenue of over 30 billion yuan (HK$34 billion), said the official who is involved in the country's 'Go West' programme, which was designed a decade ago to help develop the poorer part of the country. Xinjiang is one of 12 provincial-level regions in the programme, initiated by then president Jiang Zemin .
'The main purpose is to speed up the development and improve the people's livelihood to effectively ensure social stability after the recent riots,' the official said.
