China's Tibet Autonomous Region has made great strides forward in both providing basic public services and in poverty reduction.

This comes as most of the nation's inland regions, especially those underdeveloped areas, face insufficient public service supply and widening income gaps.

Basic public services enjoyed by Tibet's farmers and herdsmen are the best examples of government efforts to give the region's people a better life, according to the findings of a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences research team, who investigated the situation in July and August of last year.

First, food security in the region has been further improved by the agricultural and pastoral support system.

Agriculture and animal husbandry account for one-third of Tibet's gross domestic product, with about 1 million workers - 80 per cent of Tibet's total - employed.

And agriculture and animal husbandry are more than just an economic sector for Tibetans, they are a way of life, with its development playing a major role in improving both local people's incomes and the lifestyles.

Tibetan society has experienced a series of transformations since the 1950s - including the abolition of serfdom in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the establishment of people's communes in the mid-1970s and the setting-up of the self-management production system in the mid-1980s, as well as benefiting from favourable central government aid policies in the 1990s.

Agriculture and animal husbandry have witnessed an expansion both in terms of volumes as well as an overall strengthening of these sectors. The region's acreage of arable land has increased from 160,000 hectares in 1952 to 230,000 hectares in 2000. Head of livestock have increased from 9.74 million to 22.66 million during the same period. The ratio of livestock for sale has also risen by a large margin.

The central government has invested an annual sum of 300 million yuan (US$36 million) in infrastructure projects for developing the agricultural and pastoral areas in Tibet in recent years. Infrastructure constructions, including upgrading low-yield land and pastureland and building irrigation works, have improved the region's productivity and its ability to combat natural disasters.

Local fiscal revenue has supported the promotion of agricultural technologies and the prevention of animal and plant epidemics.

Local communities and villages co-operate with the government in the provision of public production support services like technologies.

The central government has also scrapped taxes levied on Tibet's farmers and herdsmen.

Together with local people's initiatives gained from running their own production, the support already mentioned has helped promoting the continuous growth of the agricultural and animal husbandry sectors over the past 15 years.

Local governments at all levels have also provided relief assistance as well as support for production activities to Tibet's poverty- stricken households.

Second, government investment is also playing a major part in the development of human resources and social welfare in rural Tibet.

Here is a list of major public services received by local population.

Free compulsory education: All school-age children have been able to attend boarding schools since 1985, which has greatly helped reduce illiteracy among the local population.

Government-assisted health care insurance: About 80 per cent of rural population take part in co-operative medical insurance. Although the coverage of the expenditure remains limited, participants can get timely and basic medical care.

Relief programmes and aid to the old and those without children: The civil departments' relief system remains effective. Governments issue grants to the old and childless while local communities also give them a helping hand.

Upgrading of power and water supply facilities: Electricity has improved the quality of life; clean tap water has not only helped to sustain the health of local population, but also reduce the work needed to carry water and the diseases spread by drinking contaminated water.

Satellite television and telecommunication services: Satellite services have created the most convenient information channel connecting the plateau with the outside world.

All these services are helpful in improving local human resources, enhancing the users' ability to defend themselves against natural or market risks and reduce poverty. In this respect, providing free or inexpensive services to the poverty stricken population through public investment and social assistance will contribute to reducing economic inequality, or, narrowing the economic gap between different regions, industries and social groups.

Besides large scale central government financial assistance, external supervision also contributes to these achievements.

Compared with other parts of China, Tibet is the most eye-catching region of the country, and the State Council has issued more White Papers on Tibet than any other regions. Public attention thus has become an effective supervisory force. Transparency has been enhanced through the further disclosure of information.

Third, more non-farming jobs have been created to increase local people's incomes, which has put higher requirements on the development of public services.

As living conditions improve, the population will increase too. The population of the Tibetan ethnic group in the Tibet Autonomous Region have increased from 1,718,238 in 1980 to 2,421,856 in 2000. At the same time, the average arable land and pastoral land per capita is decreasing.

A high population-land ratio means that only non-farm employment can absorb the surplus labour.

At present, many rural labourers choose to work in private businesses and the processing and construction industries.

Anthropologist Melvyn C. Goldstein of the Case Western Reserve University of the United States paid special attention to the ethnic structure of non-farming employment in Tibet in his paper "Development and Change in Rural Tibet." He argued that non-Tibetan migrant workers have got better jobs, while Tibetan ethnic people are engaged in manual and low-paying jobs. Thus he held that the "open door" policy in Tibet should be changed, or at least, measures should be taken to give job preferences or set-asides to citizens of the region in the government-funded construction sector, or to establish tax-rebate programmes for construction projects that hire Tibetans.

But Goldstein seemed to make such a conclusion only out of the concern that Tibetans were relatively weak in market competitiveness.

While the fact is, Tibet is an inseparable part of China. No matter whether they are Tibetan or belong to other ethnic groups, they are all Chinese citizens. Only on this basis can we talk about the impact of public policies on workers of different ethnic background, sex and age.

Allowing the free flow of labour contributes to poverty alleviation and making the country a fairer place for all. Thus from a national perspective, labour policies should not discriminate against certain regions and ethnic people.

Instead of intervening the labour market by administrative power, developing human resources to enhance Tibetan people's competitiveness should be the answer to help them gaining better non-farm jobs.

(China Daily 05/17/2004 page6)