The Tibet Autonomous Region, southwest China, has witnessed an average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 10.9 percent over the last five years, a senior official of the regional government said Saturday.

The region's GDP for 2002 was expected to reach 15.9 billion yuan (US$1.92 billion) and fiscal revenue to reach 730 million yuan (US$88.27 million), Legqog, chairman of the regional people's government, told the on-going first session of the Eighth Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress.

The two figures were 2.5 times and twice respectively those of 1997, Legqog said in his work report delivered at the meeting.

Big growth was also reported in bank savings deposits, retail sales, industrial value added, tourism, foreign trade and private businesses.

Fixed assets investment totaled 35.6 billion yuan (US$4.3 billion) in the past five years, 2.5 times the figure for the previous five-year period.

Legqog said the total length of highways opened to traffic in the region reached 35,538 kilometers by the end of 2002, an increase of more than 13,000 kilometers over 1997. The installed capacity of power plants totaled 376,000 kilowatts, 26 percent more than that of 1997.

The telecommunications industry also developed rapidly. There were 15.4 telephones to every 100 people in the region by the end of last year, 13 more than in 1997, and 80 percent of the region's counties had access to a national program-controlled long-distance telephone network.

(Xinhua News Agency January 13, 2003)