Investment has had a remarkable influence on the economic growth of Tibet. Analyses of Tibet's investment in fixed assets and local revenue and expenditure show that from 1959 to 2008 Tibet's investment in fixed assets grew from 29 million yuan to 30.333 billion yuan, and the annual growth rate reached 15.2 percent. In 1985, the second year of Tibet's opening-up, the investment in fixed assets accounted for 42.2 percent of that year's GDP, at least 10 percentage points more than in the past. From then on, Tibet's investment in fixed assets has grown by a big margin, and its proportion in the GDP has maintained a relatively high level. In each of the 10 years from 1984 to 1994, the proportion of Tibet's investment in fixed assets in its GDP was more than 40 percent. The figure rose to 66 percent in 1995, and dropped to between 45 and 47 percent in the two years from 1996 and 1998. From 1998, Tibet accelerated its investment in fixed assets. In the six years from 2003 to 2008, the proportion of Tibet's investment in fixed assets in its GDP has been more than 75 percent, over 20 percentage points more than the national average (see Table 1 and Figure 3).

    Thus we can see that investment has played an increasingly important role in the economic growth of Tibet in recent years. But we must point out that most of the investment that local governments in Tibet use to develop their economy is not from self-accumulation or market allocation, but from the central government's fiscal transfer payment and input for various projects in Tibet, and assistance from more-developed inland provinces and cities.

    Analyses of relevant statistics [5] show that the central government's transfer payments to Tibet amounted to 201.9 billion yuan between 1959 and 2008 and the figure totaled more than 154.1 billion yuan between 2001 and 2008, making up 93.7 percent of Tibet's financial revenue in the same period. This means that for every 100 yuan that Tibet spent, over 90 yuan came from the central government.

    As China's national strength has steadily increased since the introduction of the reform and opening-up policy, the central government has paid more attention and offered more support to the Tibet Autonomous Region, which is located in a border area in southwest China and whose economic development traditionally lagged behind other areas of the country. To accelerate Tibet's development, the central government held four Tibet Work Symposiums in Beijing in 1980, 1984, 1994 and 2001, respectively, providing more fiscal transfer payments and more investment in key projects for Tibet, bringing into being a framework for all places in China to provide assistance to Tibet. We have noticed that in the 22 years from 1985, not long after Tibet began the reform and opening-up, to 2007 the central government's financial subsidies for Tibet totaled 156.4 billion yuan. In 2007 alone, the central government's financial subsidy for Tibet was as high as 28 billion yuan, equivalent to the total subsidies Tibet received from the central government from 1959 to 1995. [6]

    In addition to financial support, the central government also provides the investment for most of the major projects in Tibet. The Third Tibet Work Symposium decided upon 62 state-invested projects and 716 projects with assistance from other places, involving a total input of over eight billion yuan. The Fourth Tibet Work Symposium decided upon 117 state-invested projects, involving a total investment of about 31.2 billion yuan. Moreover, other areas have assisted Tibet with 70 projects, involving a total investment of over three billion yuan. In January 2007, the central government discussed and adopted in principle the Tibet Autonomous Region's Project Scheme in the 11th Five-Year Plan Period (2006-2010), planning to invest 77.88 billion yuan to build180 projects in Tibet. The total investment was expected to exceed 100 billion yuan.

    In January 2007, the central government discussed and adopted in principle the Tibet Autonomous Region's Project Scheme in the 11th Five-Year Plan Period (2006-2010), planning to invest 77.88 billion yuan to build 180 projects in Tibet. The total investment was expected to exceed 100 billion yuan.

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
[11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]