Xinjiang receives 2.7 bln USD of aid funds in 2019

Ezibek Yusupbek helps his wife Anarhan Sarfik milking sheep at the Laybulaq pasture in Aktogar Langgar Village of Datong Township, Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 21, 2019. Previous every summer, the poverty-stricken family of Ezibek Yusupbek went to the Laybulak pasture for herding, which used to be a major source of the family's income. Thanks to local government's subsidy measures and pension policy, the income from herding has taken less proportion in Ezibek Yusupbek family's annual income at present. They are also funded by a resettlement house in urban area from government to help them to get rid of poverty. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu)

More than 80% of the aid funds have been invested in areas related to people's wellbeing and to regions at and below the county level.

URUMQI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Nineteen Chinese provinces and municipalities provided more than 18.8 billion yuan (about 2.7 billion U.S. dollars) of aid funds in 2019 to northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Shohrat Zakir, chairman of the regional government, said in his government work report delivered Monday at the third session of the 13th People's Congress of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that last year 1,935 aid projects have been undertaken by the provinces and municipalities to contribute to the region's poverty alleviation, people's wellbeing and economic development.

Zakir added that more than 80 percent of the aid funds have been invested in areas related to people's wellbeing and to regions at and below the county level.

China has been implementing the "pairing assistance" program in Xinjiang since 1997, channeling financial support to Xinjiang from other regions of the country and sending cadres and professionals to work there.

In 2010, a new round of pairing assistance program was launched, involving central and state organs, centrally-administered state-owned enterprises, and 19 provinces and municipalities.

Over the past nine years, Xinjiang has received a total investment of nearly 120 billion yuan.