Published by: World Tibet Network News, Friday, June 28, 1996

Lhasa, 28th June - Xinhua: The Tibet Autonomous Region plans to increase its industrial production at a yearly rate of 15.6 per cent over the next five years, according to the regional government.

An official of the Regional Planning Commission said today that Tibet's annual industrial production value will rise to 1.26bn yuan in the year 2000. The official said that during the 1996-2000 period, Tibet will concentrate on expanding industries such as mining, mineral processing, textiles, Tibetan handicrafts, farm products and animal by-product processing, building materials and logging and timber processing. The mining industry will focus on developing chromium, gold, copper, lead, boron and zinc resources.

The region's annual ferrochrome alloy production capacity will increase to 5, 000 tons at the end of the century, the official said.

The light industry, textile industry and Tibetan handicraft industry will expand the production capacities of export-orientated enterprises and speed up their technological upgrading.

Existing carpet factories will be upgraded to increase their annual production to 89,000 sq.m. in the year 2000, he said.

Tibet's annual cement production is expected to rise to 450,000 tons at the turn of this century, he said. The region's timber production will be restricted to 300,000 cu.m. in the year 2000 in a bid to protect forestry resources, he added.

Boron resources will be developed in salt lakes in Nagari and Xigaze prefectures, in order to increase Tibet's annual borax production to 30,000 tons in the year 2000, he said.