During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), the people of all Tibet’s ethnic groups united as one and worked hard for success. Under the central government’s care and attention, and with strong support from the people of all China’s ethnic groups, remarkable results were attained in the following specific areas of economic and social development.
First, total economic output reached a new level. Double digit economic growth was achieved for five consecutive years, thus maintaining the momentum of leapfrog development. The total output value of the Tibet Autonomous Region increased at an average annual rate of 12.4% and successively exceeded 30 billion yuan, 40 billion yuan, and 50 billion yuan, reaching 50.75 billion yuan in 2010. Total fixed asset investment came to 165.6 billion yuan, 2.4 times more than during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period; retail sales of consumer goods totaled 67 billion yuan, 1.3 times more than during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period; and local government general budgetary revenue totaled 12.63 billion yuan, 3 times more than during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period.
Second, five historic steps were taken in the construction of infrastructure. The Qinghai-Tibet railway was opened in 2006, signaling the beginning of rail travel in Tibet. The Medog highway and Galonga tunnel were linked up, meaning every county in China is finally accessible by road. Work began on the expressway linking Lhasa and Gonggar Airport, which will be the first expressway in Tibet. Airfield lighting at Gonggar Airport was put into operation, and Nyingchi, Alikunsha and Xigaze Peace airports were opened to air traffic, allowing night flights to Tibet and meaning there is now more than one regional airport in the province. Construction started on the Qinghai-Tibet DC power grid project, meaning Tibet now has more than one power system.
Moreover, 54 of Tibet’s 74 counties are now connected by tarmac roads; there are 58,000 kilometers of highways open to traffic, 33% more than at the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan period; the region’s total installed capacity of electric power reached 974,000 kilowatts, 474,000 kilowatts more than at the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, with a further 956,000 kilowatts of capacity under construction; 3G network coverage is available across all counties, there are more than 1.15 million internet users, fiber optic connectivity is available in almost every township, and there is telephone coverage in almost every village; radio and television coverage reached 90.3% and 91.4% of the population respectively; and the percentage of towns and townships with access to postal communication reached 85.7%.
Third, industries with local advantages developed rapidly. Tibet has taken the first steps to form seven zones of industries with local advantages, namely, the northeast Tibetan Yak, northwest Tibetan down producing goat, central Tibetan dairy cattle, central and northern Tibetan sheep, central Tibetan quality grain and oil, suburban pollution-free vegetable, and Tibetan pig and chicken breeding industry zones, reflecting the emerging trend towards regionalization in distribution, specialization in production, industrialization in development, and the increase in scale of operations of specialist agriculture. The tourism industry, however, has been Tibet’s most important local industry. Despite the significant impact the March 14 incident had on the tourism industry, as the Tibet situation quickly returned to normal, and extra efforts were made to market Tibet and optimize its services, with particular emphasis on winter and rural breaks, the tourism industry rapidly recovered and developed, and in 2009 the number of tourists who visited the province returned to the same levels as 2007, before the March 14 incident. Moreover, in 2010, the number of tourists who visited Tibet soared to 6.851 million, with total tourism revenue reaching 7.14 billion yuan, 2.8 and 2.7 times more than 2005 respectively.
Fourth, social programs and social security improved across the board. Tibet was the first place in China to offer free compulsory education in urban and rural areas, and has increased spending on the “three guarantees” four times to an average of 1800 yuan. A total of 72 county-level health service centers and 682 township hospitals have been built, urban and rural health service coverage is gradually improving, and targets for eliminating iodine deficiency disorders have almost been met throughout the region. Every effort has been made to increase employment, with the graduate employment rate above 80%, and the urban registered unemployment rate remaining below 4%. Tibet was also the first area of the country to achieve complete coverage for the systems of basic medical insurance, the new type of old-age insurance for rural residents, and urban and rural subsistence allowances.
Fifth, living standards in urban and rural areas improved dramatically. The average net income of herdsmen grew by double digits for 8 consecutive years, exceeding 4000 yuan in 2010 to reach 4138.7 yuan, an increase of 99.2% since 2005, and the per capita disposable income of urban residents increased to 14,980 yuan, 78.1% more than in 2005. In 2010, Tibet’s CPI increased 2.2%. Over the past five years, total investment in Tibet reached 17 billion yuan. The plan to provide suitable housing for herdsmen was fully implemented, with 275,000 households, or 1.43 million herdsmen and their families, moving into safe and suitable housing. The problem of safe drinking water was resolved for another 153,000 people; 159 towns and townships and 1659 administrative villages were connected by highways; and 740,000 herdsmen were provided with electricity. In the CCTV Economic Life Survey, the people of Lhasa have, for the past four years, been ranked the happiest people in China.
Sixth, construction began on the ecological security barrier on the Tibetan Plateau. We formulated the Plan for the Protection and Construction of the Ecological Security Barrier in Tibet, which was approved by the State Council. To date, 2.5 billion yuan has been invested, and ten items from the three main types of projects determined in the plan, namely, key protection projects, key construction projects, and supporting and protecting projects, have begun to be implemented. Tibet has taken the lead across the country in launching a pilot project on an incentive system for protecting the ecology of grasslands. As part of this, a forest ecological benefits compensation system has been established, with just over 10 million acres of the region’s public welfare forests falling within the scope of compensation. Already, 47 nature reserves and 21 ecological function conservation areas have been established, almost 115,000 hectares have been afforested, 42,688 hectares have been used to prevent and control desertification, 39,020 hectares of farmland has been converted into forests, and 3.94 million hectares of grazing land has been returned to grassland. A comprehensive ban was also enforced on placer mines.
Seventh, the pace of opening up accelerated. With a focus on the rest of China, Tibet gradually comprehensively opened up. Tibet also joined the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, and promoted the development of an ecological travel area for Sichuan, Yunnan, and Tibet. Tibet’s foreign trade constantly expanded, increasing 107.9% in 2010 to reach US$ 836 million, the highest for ten years. Of this, exports of textile products and electrical and mechanical products increased significantly, the largest export countries being Nepal, Germany and the US. During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, border trade by residents in Tibet’s border areas totaled 1.511 billion yuan, an increase of 63.7% over the previous five-year period.
This author believes that the results achieved in economic and social development in Tibet during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period were, first of all, not easy to come by given that they were obtained while overcoming the adverse effects of the March 14 incident and the international financial crisis, and second, particularly valuable given that during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period the focus was not on the speed of development but more on improving the quality of development, improving people’s lives, protecting the environment, fostering Tibet’s capacity for self-development, and strengthening economic and cultural communication and exchanges with the interior. This laid solid theoretical and practical foundations for convening the central government’s fifth Tibet Work Forum in January 2010. The facts clearly show that the central governments policies on Tibet accord with Tibet’s realities and have received the wholehearted support of all Tibet’s ethnic groups. The blueprint for Tibet during the Twelfth-Five Year Plan has already been drawn up, and we believe Tibet’s future will be even brighter.
