By: Dr Wang Xiaobin
For a long time, Tibet has been praised as a paradise on earth for its magical and magnificent natural scenery and rich and simple folk customs. In fact, in old Tibet the living conditions of the majority of people were extremely harsh. Since 1959, especially since the reform and opening- up, the Communist party of China started to help and develop Tibet, improving people’s livelihood has been an extremely important task. After the 18th national congress of CPC, the Chinese government has made unremitting efforts to continuously improve people’s livelihood in Tibet.
Continue to promote employment. Since 2012, Tibet has made every effort to expand employment, expand employment channels and improve the quality of employment. From 2013 to 2017, nearly all college graduates in the region were employed year after year through public examination. Through the mechanism of organization, vocational training, employment service and labor rights protection, a total of more than 4.35 million labors in agricultural and pastoral areas have been transferred over the past five years. At the same time, Tibet region will implement and improve the policy of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and encourage mass entrepreneurship and innovation through preferential financing, policies and technologies. After multiple efforts, the registered urban unemployment rate in the region was controlled between 2.5% and 2.7%.
Develop education vigorously. For a long time, China has devoted a lot of efforts to the education of Tibet, hoping to create a brighter future for the snowy plateau. Since 2012, investment in education in Tibet has been increasing year by year, and the conditions and quality of education have been significantly improved. By 2018, the district’s gross enrollment rate for preschool education is 77.9 percent, up 25.92 percentage points from 2013. The retention rate in compulsory education was 93.9 percent, 3.9 percentage points higher than in 2015. The gross enrollment rate of senior high school students was 82.3%, 9.97 percentage points higher than that of 2013. The gross enrollment rate of higher education was 39.2 percent, an increase of 11.49 percentage points over 2013. Great achievements have been made in the construction of higher education institutions. The college of Tibetan medicine was renamed the university of Tibetan medicine.
Continue to promote medical and health services.Most of Tibet is located in the alpine and anoxic regions, where the harsh natural conditions seriously affect the health of the people. Before1951, there were only 1.14 million people and the average life expectancy was only 35.5 years. The health of people of all ethnic groups in Tibet is a major concern of the communist party of China, and a large amount of manpower, resources and financial resources have been invested in promoting medical and health services. Since2012, the construction of a healthy Tibet has been continuously promoted, and the screening and treatment of echinococcosis has been continuously promoted. The reform of the medical and health care system has been deepened. Public services are improving. By 2018, the per capita standard for basic public health services will be raised to 75 yuan (RMB). In 2018, the coverage rate of Tibetan medicine in township hospitals will reach 89%. Thanks to long-term efforts, the average life expectancy in Tibet has increased to 68.2 years, and the population of Tibet has exceeded 3 million.
Continue to strengthen social security. By 2018, a total of 3.707 million people in the region have participated in various types of social insurance, an increase of 1.288 million people over 2013. The basic medical insurance system for both urban and rural residents will be fully covered. The social security information platform has successfully connected the whole country with the Internet, and the medical system in agricultural and pastoral areas has preliminarily realized the instant settlement of medical treatment in different places across provinces. The minimum wage will be 1650 yuan per month and 16 yuan per hour. In 2017, the standard of subsistence allowance for urban residents was 700 yuan per person per month, 3,311 yuan per person per year for rural residents. The standard of social assistance has been steadily raised.
Insist on improving traffic conditions. There is a well-known saying in China: “if you want to be rich, you must first build roads. Before the democratic reform, Tibet did not have a road in a modern sense. Transportation was mainly by human or animal power. It took several days to get from Shigatse to Lhasa. After decades of hard construction, Tibet’s history of no high-grade highways or railways has been completely ended. In 2013, the opening of the Metok highway marked the opening of roads in all counties of Tibet. By the end of 2018, a total of 68,800 kilometers of rural roads had been opened to traffic in Tibet, and 13,100 kilometers of newly upgraded rural roads had been built. 34 towns and 533 villages had been added to the total.
Persevere in the fight against poverty. Tibet is the only provincial-level contiguous poverty-stricken area in China. Over the years, the CPC has made great efforts to lead people of all ethnic groups in Tibet out of poverty. Central government continued to combat poverty through a number of measures. Since 2012, on the basis of continuing to increase poverty alleviation efforts, more attention has been paid to the accuracy of poverty alleviation and efforts have been made to tackle deep poverty. By 2018, Tibet have lifted more than 180,000 people out of poverty in 2,100 poor villages in 25 counties and districts. The incidence of poverty dropped from 28.8 percent to 7.9 percent. According to the plan formulated by TAR, by 2020, all the 396,000 registered poor people in Tibet under the current standard will be lifted out of poverty, all the poverty-stricken villages will be withdrawn, and all the poverty-stricken counties (districts) will be removed, thus solving the overall regional poverty.
wangxiaobin
China Tibetology Research Center1
