Tibetans facing better future, says new report

In recent years, the completion and operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railway has greatly spurred growing demand for tourism, cars, housing, catering and entertainment. In 2008 Tibet's retail sales of consumer goods came to 12.908 billion yuan, up 15.2 percent over 2007. Of these, the retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas stood at 6.428 billion yuan, up 14 percent over 2007; the retail sales of consumer goods at the county level or below totaled 6.48 billion yuan, up 16.4 percent over 2007. Looking at particular sectors, the wholesale and retail trade in 2008 yielded 10.459 billion yuan, up 18.1 percent over 2007; the retail sales for the lodging and catering sector recorded 1.951 billion yuan, up 3.8 percent over 2007; and the retail sales of other sectors hit 498 million yuan, up 7.3 percent over 2007.

In the wholesale and retail sector above a designated size, retail sales of clothing, shoes, hats and textiles grew by 35.4 percent, that of petroleum products by 30.9 percent, that of gold, silver and jewelry by 20.4 percent, and that of food, beverages, tobacco and alcohol by 68 percent.

Posts and telecommunications have seen unprecedented growth. In 1959, Tibet had only 276 telephones, mostly located in large and medium-sized cities like Lhasa. The earnings of postal and telecommunications services then totaled only 990,000 yuan. Now, Tibet has formed an advanced communications network covering every part of the region with Lhasa as the center, providing services such as optical cable and satellite transmission, combining program controlled exchange, satellite communication, digital communication and mobile communication. Statistics show that over the past 20 years the business transactions of the postal and telecommunications services in Tibet have grown at an annual rate of 34.4 percent, reaching 4.173 billion yuan in 2008, up 35.1 percent over 2007. By the end of 2008, telephone (including mobile phone) subscribers in Tibet totaled 1.562 million, an increase of 117,000 subscribers over the previous year. Now in Tibet there are 55 telephones per 100 persons, with the rural telephone subscribers numbering almost 27,000 households. In addition, Tibet has over 800 Internet websites, providing services to about 200,000 netizens.