The private economy of Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has rapidly developed in recent years, thanks to the support of the local government, said Zhao Zhengxiu, director of the Tibet regional administration of industry and commerce.

The regional administration's statistics show that Tibet had 1,823 registered private enterprises, with registered funds of 3.8 billion yuan (US$459 million) in 2003, a year-on-year increase of 22.69 percent.

Zhao said that Tibet well integrated the development of private enterprises with the reemployment of laid-off workers. The autonomous region encouraged unemployed citizens to start their own business through favorable policies, said the official.

The policies widened the business range of private enterprises, and canceled certain limits on the qualification of investors and the starting registered fund, Zhao said, which brought about the boom of Tibetan private economy.