Sustainable Development in Tibet：Achievement,Challenges& Strategic Choice

　　Wang Xinhuai (China)

　　Abstract: With the strong support of the Central Government and people’s hard working of all ethnic groups in Tibet, economic and social development of Tibet gained great success attracting worldwide attention. But because of the later start, weak economic foundation and heavy debt, there are still some problems and challenges in economic and social development. In current and future periods, Tibet should adhere to the strategy of sustainable development, in combination with the local actual situation and changing the concept of development, in order to realize the harmonious development of economy, society, population, resources and environment.

　　Keywords:Tibet, development strategy, sustainable development

　　Ⅰ.Great achievement and challenges in the development process of Tibet

　　Chinese government has always paid great attention on Tibet autonomous region’s economic and social development. Especially in the new century, the Central Committee held the Fourth and Fifth Tibet Forum and formulated a series of policies which devoted a lot of manpower, material resource and financial resource. It gave a strong impetus for economic and social development in Tibet. With the strong support of the Central Government and the hard working of all ethnic groups in Tibet, Tibet’s economic and social development has made remarkable achievements. Mainly reflected in following aspects:

　　ⅰ.Economic scale reached to a new level. 2001-2013, Tibet's Gross Regional Production increased from 13.9 billion Yuan to 80.2 billion Yuan. The local finance general budget revenue increased from 610 million Yuan to 9.5 billion Yuan. The total investment amount increased from 8.3 billion Yuan to 91 billion Yuan. The total retail sales of consumer goods increased from 4.9 billion Yuan to 29.3 billion Yuan , increased 4.8 times, 14.6 times, 9.9 times and 4.9 times respectively.

　　ⅱ.People's living standards greatly improved. In Tibet, 2013, the per capita disposable income of urban residents, per capita net income of rural residents 　reached 20,023 Yuan and 6578 Yuan, respectively 2.5 times and 4.6 times than 2001. In 2011, the Central Government decided to raise new national poverty standard to 2300 Yuan (per capita net income of farmers, 2010 constant prices). In three years, the impoverished population in agricultural and pastoral areas of Tibet decreased from 1,060,000 in 2011 to 720,000 in 2013 and the poverty rate fell from 43.9% to 28.8%. By the end of 2013, all 460,000 households, 2,300,000 farmers and herdsmen lived in the safe house. More than 2 million people solved the problem of drinking clean water. The  rate of towns and administrative villages accessible by road reached to 99.7% and 97.4% respectively. And the broadcast television coverage reached to 94.4% and 95.5% respectively. 15 years free compulsory education “three responsibilitiespolicy”, covering meals, accommodation and leaning cost, fully implemented so the working population average educated years reached to 8.4 years.

　　ⅲ.Major infrastructure improved significantly. The total miles of highway reached to 70,000 kilometers. Medog highway opened to traffic ending the history of last-no-highway County. The Qinghai-Tibet railway opened to traffic ending the no railway history of Tibet. There’re now 5 airports and transported aviation passenger number is 2.73 million. Electricity installed capacity reached to 1.28 million kilowatts. The Qinghai-Tibet HVDC operation ended the condition of the isolated electricity grid in central Tibet. Building Pangduo hydro, and three major irrigation areas of Moda, Manla and Yalong improved irrigation condition of 2.3 million mu. Three-level flood control system of city and township was formed.

　　ⅳ.Advantage industries developed rapidly. Both the Central Government and the Tibet’s government started a series of important planning and construction such as the characteristic plateau and agricultural products base, the West-to-East energy transmission and connecting base, the important national non-ferrous metal base, the world tourist destination, and so on. These measures strengthened advantage industries development such as agriculture and animal husbandry, mineral resources, Tibetan medicine and tourism. Economic structure optimized continuously. Industrial structure in terms of primary, secondary and tertiary industries adjusted from 27:23:50 in 2001 to 10.8:35.8:53.4 in 2013 and the proportion of non agriculture increased 16.2 percentage points than in 2001. The total revenue of tourists and tourism increased year by year, the annual tourism revenue of 16 billion Yuan, an increase of 27%.

　　ⅴ.Ecological security barrier construction improved significantly. The Central Government has implemented the project of reforesting cultivated land, returning grazing land to grassland, natural forest protection. It established 47 nature reserves, accounting for 33.9% of the total land area of the region. It initiated a rewarding mechanism for the protection of grassland. It expanded the scope of compensation for forest ecological benefits and started the project of water ecological compensation.  An average of 3.5 billion Yuan per year has been devoted to ecological compensation benefiting 2 million farmers and herdsmen. As the "Tibet ecological security barrier protection and construction planning" was approved and implemented with total investment of 15.5 billion Yuan, ecological protection and construction in Tibet has entered a new historical stage.

　　Although Tibet's economic and social development gained great success that attract worldwide attention, but also faces many challenges, especially the unsustainable, uncoordinated, unbalanced problem which would restrict the development of Tibet.

　　For example, the natural environment and development condition in some areas are still weak. The advantage of rich resources has not been fully transformed into economic advantage so economic development still relies too much on investment especially the Central Government investment. The contradiction between industrial development and ecological protection become more prominent. The task of improving the people’s livelihood is still heavy. Potential of regional development is weak, and so on.

　　Ⅱ.The strategic choice for sustainable development of Tibet

　　In current and future periods, facing economic and social development problems and challenges, Tibet should adhere to sustainable development strategy, in combination with the local actual situation and changing the concept of development, develop pattern innovation, in order to realize the harmonious development of economy, society population, resources and environment. In the process of development, should mainly deal well with six relations.

　　ⅰ.Adhere to the strategy of comparative advantage, deal well with the relationship between the general rule and the prominent features of Tibet. Considering the special natural, historical, social conditions in Tibet, development mode can not easily copy others’, especially can’t choose the road of destruction earlier and rebuilding afterwards. We must think of Tibet’s own resources, industrial base and national strategic needs. We must fully exert comparative advantage and suit local conditions while foster strengths and reduce weaknesses. On the one hand, we must rely on market orientation and mainly develop hydropower, mineral resources, tourism, local agricultural and animal husbandry resources which means that we should cultivate new economic grow points actively and transform resource advantage into economic advantage in efforts. On the other hand, we must aim at the "short board" of transportation, energy and human resources which means that we should solve constricted factors step by step to create benefit conditions and improve self-development ability constantly.

　　ⅱ.Adhere to the scale and benefit simultaneously, deal well with the relationship between development speed and development quality. Since the Western Development policy has been implemented and the Fifth Central Tibet forum was held, the economic and social development of Tibet accelerated greatly. But because of Tibet’s weak economic foundation and heavy debt, its’ essence of underdeveloped has not been actually changed and the self-development mechanism has not yet formed. It’s called to accelerate development speed in order to realize the well-off society. We should establish the concept of sustainable development firmly while innovative working method and focus both on development speed and development quality. To accelerate the development speed means to replenish development foundation, to take development as the top priority all the way, to improve the investment and developing environment, to improve competitive characteristic industries, to increase endogenous power of  economic development. To grasp the development quality means to adhere to the overall planning, to adjust economic structure, to change the mode of economic development, to strengthening ecological construction and environmental protection, in order to realize a coordinated development of the economy and population, resources and environment.

　　ⅲ.Adhere to the strategy of ecological safety first, deal well with the relationship between industrial development and environmental protection. Tibet has beautiful natural scenery and rich resources. It is well known as the "third pole" of the world and it’s an important ecological security barrier of China, also an ecological sensitive area which is difficult to repair once destroyed. We must give full attention to environment protection in the process of industry development. We must deal with the relationship between economic development and ecological protection correctly. We must integrate development and protection together. We must verify all construction projects strictly considering the factors of ecological environment, industrial policy, resource consumption and prohibit those industrial projects which may damage the ecological environment.

　　At the same time, we must accelerate the environmental protection projects construction while improve the ecological compensation mechanism constantly and strengthen environmental protection law enforcement which lead to a good atmosphere for whole society to treasure and protect the ecological environment following a sustainable development way.

　　ⅳ.Adhere to improve the livelihood of people, deal well with the relationship between large projects and the improvement of people's livelihood. The construction of major projects in Tibet’s development is necessary, but to solve the problems of peasants and herdsmen’s difficulties and let them share real benefits during economic development is more important. Only in this way, we can cohesion people more effectively so they can provide an inexhaustible motive force for good and quick development. To guarantee and improve people's livelihood should focus on ten aspects: clean water, electricity, road, gas, house, education, health, culture, employment and social security. Solving the problem of "each one owns their house" is the breakthrough point which could promote the construction of water, electricity, road and gas infrastructures in agricultural and pastoral areas. Education is another breakthrough point to improve population quality and lay a good foundation for employment and also to solve other basic public service problems such as health, culture and social security.

　　ⅴ.Adhere to coordinate the development of urban and rural area, deal well with the relationship between urban construction and development of the agricultural and pastoral areas. Tibet has 2.4 million farmers, accounting for more than 80% of total population in the region. At the same time, many towns in Tibet located at high elevations and are in poor natural conditions, which are not conducive to population agglomeration and service function enhancement. We should　 improve producing and living conditions in agricultural and pastoral areas and let industrial development results really benefit farmers and herdsmen. And also we should adjust urban layout planning, promote urbanization construction, in order to accelerate the development of Tibet’s economy and society. On the one hand, we must formulate and improve urban development planning and optimize urban layout which mainly develop the towns that in moderate elevation and have better living environment while develop small border towns and reduce the urban population of high altitude and in harsh conditions. On the other hand, we must rely on the improvement of traffic conditions to adjust the planning of village layout and coordinate the development of urban and rural area in order to perfect public services system of agricultural and pastoral areas and improve and optimize the ecological environment.

　　ⅵ.Adhere to the strategy of activating the original power of regional development, deal well with the relationship between deepening cooperation and opening up.  Tibet is bordering with Nepal and India so it has advantage to develop foreign trade and economic cooperation. In 2005, the total import and export amount of Tibet exceeded US $200 million, and it reached to $3.3 billion in 2013, an increase of nearly 15 times. As a matter of fact, the more obdurate, the more backward. Only in the process of opening up, it could obtain the acceleration of development. Tibet should change the concept of development and increase the intensity of reform and opening up. In the aspect of strengthening national exchanges and cooperation, Tibet should grasp the opportunity of global economic development mode adjustment and regional cooperation going to breadth and depth. It should take the initiative to strengthen economic ties with the mainland especially with developed coastal areas in order to actively attract fund, technology and talents and undertake the industrial transformation of coastal developed regions. In the aspect of strengthening the development and opening up, Tibet should actively participate in the strategy of “bringing in" and "going out”. It should fully take the advantage of resource and market. It should strengthen investment and industrial cooperation with neighboring and other countries actively in order to expand foreign trade field and scale and enhance the level of opening up, to promote industrial integration and upgrade trade and economic transformation.

　　（Wang Xinhuai, Counsel (D-G Level), Department of Regional Economy, NDRC）