Tibet's economy posted a 14.7-percent growth in the first half of this year, the highest over the past decade, government statistics showed Tuesday.

The gross domestic product (GDP) reached 14 billion yuan (US$1.84 billion) in the first six months, and the growth rate was 2.2 percentage points higher than the same period of last year, according to the Tibet Regional Statistics Bureau.

The figure breaks down into about 2.2 billion yuan for agriculture, 2.9 billion yuan for industry, and 8.9 billion yuan for the tertiary industry, indicating an annual growth of 4.9 percent, 20.5 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively.

Tibet's economic growth was mostly driven by the tertiary industry, which contributed 66.4 percent to the increase, the bureau said.

Thanks to the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway since July 1 last year, the tertiary industry, which features the consumption market and service industry, has developed fast in the past year, it said.

The 1,956-km-long railway, running from Xining, capital of northwestern Qinghai Province, and the Tibet's regional capital Lhasa, has linked Tibet with the rest of China by train for the first time.

Due to more convenient transport, more tourists, or over 1.1 million in number, traveled to Tibet in the first six months of the year, up 86.3 percent over the same period last year, according to the regional tourism bureau.

The booming influx of tourists brought 990.3 million yuan (US$130 million) in revenue to the Himalayan region, an increase of 92.1 percent, statistics show.

The annual GDP growth of Tibet reached 13.4 percent last year, bringing the region's total GDP to a record 29 billion yuan (US$3.74 billion) with the per-capita GDP above US$1,000.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2007)