Tibet is an area where agriculture and animal husbandry are the dominant industries. Among the population of 2.81 million, more than 2.3 million are farmers and herders, accounting for 80 percent of the total. Tibet's GDP increased by over 12 percent each year in the first five years of the 21st century, and the per capita income of farmers and herders has maintained double-digit growth for three straight years. According to statistics, in 2007, per capita GDP reached 12,109 Yuan, up 12.6 percent. Of the total, per capita disposable income of urban resident amounted to 111,131 Yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 24.5 percent, and per capita net income of farmers and herders totaled 2.788, an increase of 14.5 percent. The Engel coefficient of urban and rural households was 50.9 percent and 57.1 percent, respectively.

Housing Project

In recent years, the government of Tibet Autonomous region, with the people's normal and happy lives as a breakthrough point for building new socialist countryside, carried out the housing project for farmers and herders mainly covering farmers' homes reconstruction, nomadic peoples' resettlement in aid of the poor. The project, once finished, will mean housing will have been provided for 80 percent of the region's farmers and herders by the end of 2010. According to Chen Jin, head of the Tibet construction department, from 2006 to 2007, the regional government invested 6.6 billion Yuan in the housing project, which benefited 570,000 farmers and herders from 112,000 households，and at the same time invested 141 million Yuan in finishing construction of the comprehensive supporting projects for infrastructure for 600 administrative villages. In 2008, the government will earmark 686 million Yuan to help 52,000 farming and herding households move into brick houses or settles down from their former nomadic existence.

The housing project for farmers and herders is carried out through "governmental support, other provinces' aid, bank loan and public self-financing". Every farmer and herder family or poverty-stricken household can draw assistances，ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 Yuan, reducing the house-building costs of farmers and herders to the maximum extent. In rebuilding, the choice and living customs of the farmers and herders are fully respected.

To improve living standards for low-income households, Tibet actively pushed forward the construction of low-rental houses and turnover houses. Starting from 2008, the government of Tibet Autonomous region plans to allocate 465 million for low-cost housing. The money will be sued to build 4,560 low-rental houses with a combined construction area of 200,000 square meters. In addition, 14,439 houses, with construction area totaling 1.104 million square meters, will be built for people to stay before moving into new houses. By the end of 2007, the per capita housing space for urban residents in Tibet have stood at 32.7 square meters and that for farmers and herdsmen reached 21.7 square meters. Construction of the housing project for 58,300 households of farmers and households has been completed through 620 million Yuan of regional government investment, 174 million Yuan of funds supported by governments at prefecture and county level, and other provinces' aid of 45 million Yuan. At the end of that year, some 303,400 farmers and herders moved into the new, spacious and bright houses.

At the same time, the construction of the supporting projects for the housing project financed by governments at various levels, with emphases placed on the water, road, electricity and postal communications, is also speeded up. Over the past two years, another 1,490 villages belonging to 219 townships had highway access,1.02 million farmers and herders gained safe drinking water, and 111 central towns and townships were accessible to postal communications, 3,712 administrative villages were linked by telephone, and 650,000 million farmers and herders enjoyed access to electricity.

 Poverty-Reduction-Oriented Development

Starting from 2005, Tibet carried out pilot poverty reduction project of "enhancing the whole township". It chooses 10 townships each year as pilots, each of which receives three million Yuan, which is mainly used for industrial development in the poverty-stricken townships or towns in addition to improving the production and living conditions of the poverty-stricken population. In 2007, Tibet continued to increase the input into the poverty-reduction oriented development with the capital reaching 348 million Yuan. Emphasis was placed on carrying out the housing project for poverty stricken households, pushing ahead with the poverty reduction project of "enhancing the whole township" in 30 towns and townships in the Region, and speeding up the construction of the venues for activities of organization at the village level and the comprehensive supporting projects for infrastructure. The TAR Government also allocated a special fund of 40 million Yuan to promote the area development of the ethnic groups with less population, and mainly solve problems regarding infrastructure such rural roads, small-sized farmland irrigation works and drinking water safety for human and livestock, thereby greatly improving the production and living conditions in the poverty-stricken farming and pasturing areas. In that year, Tibet also exported labor services of 700,000 person times to other provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government with income totaling 950 million Yuan, thus raising the living standards.

In the same year, Tibet further expanded the poverty-reduction program, and gradually established the new farmers and herders training mechanism including "training, employment and service", creating a new situation for poverty-reduction projects. It also increased an additional investment of 45.8 million Yuan in this regard. On the basis of improving planning, the townships (town) will focus on implementing projects such as domestic breeding, farmers and herders family's hostels, farmers and herders construction team, farming and livestock products processing and economic cooperation organizational support. These projects will enhance the consciousness of farmers and herders towards commodities and their marketization capacity, and expand the channel for increasing income.

During the period from 2006 to 2010, industry-driven and "enhancing the township" poverty reduction programs will be implemented in Tibet's 200 townships (towns), mainly supporting 964,000 people. This ensures that one million residents will be lifted out of poverty and backwardness and become rich, of whom 500,000 will be expected to take the lead in becoming well-off.

Drinking Water Safety in the Rural Areas

Unsafe drinking water in Tibet's farming and pasturing areas is a problem obsessing Tibetan locals. Long-distance water carriage and unsafe water have influenced local health for a long time.

In 2007, Tibet continued to implement the drinking water safety project in rural areas with priority given to arranging the construction of the drinking water projects in housing projects, high-arsenic, high-fluorine, high-Kaschin-Beck disease-occurrence areas and border areas, and for minorities with small populations. The government earmarked 193 million Yuan to solve the drinking water difficulties and ensure safety for 231,300 farmers and herders. By 2010, Tibet will offer safe drinking water to 1.222 million people. Staring from 2006, Tibet carried out the drinking water safety project in rural areas. By the end of 2007, it has invested 394 million Yuan in providing safe drinking water for 600,000 farmers and herders.

(Source: China's Tibet Facts & Figures 2008 )