Construction on a steam-pressing brick factory costing 23 million yuan (US$2.78 million) to be funded by Jilin Province commenced recently in Lhasa, capital city of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

To date, construction has started on 26, or more than one third, of the 71 projects to be built in Tibet with assistance from other parts of China, a regional government official said.

The projects were decided according to a decision made at the fourth meeting of the central government in June this year on boosting development in Tibet.

Statistics show that two road projects built in Lhasa have been completed. Hunan and Hubei provinces provided 44 million yuan (US$5.32 million) for highway projects in the Shannan Prefecture of Tibet, making up 70 percent of the planned amount. The Ngari Prefecture has signed agreements with Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Hebei and Shaanxi on projects to be built with their aid.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2001)