"The revised law will help promote the prosperity of all nationalities by narrowing the economic and social development gap between autonomous ethnic minority areas and other places," said Tomur Dawamat, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

He was speaking at a seminar on the Law on Regional National Autonomy which was held yesterday in Beijing.

The minority ethnic population accounts for 8.41 percent of the total population which stands at 1.29 billion, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics after the latest national census.

Over two thirds of the nation's minority population inhabit the landlocked western regions, according to sources from the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

The majority of the 150 autonomous counties across the country lag far behind the relatively developed coastal provinces and rely on financial support from the government.

China has five autonomous regions in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Guangxi, all covered by the nation's go-west program, which was initiated last year.

The right of national autonomy was stipulated in the nation's Constitution as a basic political system.

The law has successfully translated this constitutional right into concrete measures to guarantee the realization of the right, said Wang Chaowen, a member of the NPC Ethnic Affairs Committee.

The Law on Regional National Autonomy came into force in 1984.

The NPC Standing Committee, the top legislative body in the nation, adopted amendments to the law in February.

The amendments legalized preferential policies that the central government gives to autonomous ethnic minority regions in the fields of finance, foreign trade, infrastructure construction, protection for the environment and cultural and educational causes in the regions.

The amended law stipulates that various levels of government should increase financial aid and investment to ethnic autonomous regions.

The amendments, which focus on sustainable development, will give new momentum to the economic development of minority ethnic regions, said Zhao Yannian, vice-director of the Ethnic and Religion Commission with the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

The seminar was sponsored by the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the NPC Ethnic Affairs Committee, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Legislative Affairs Office with the State Council and the Ethnic and Religion Commission of the CPPCC National Committee.

(China Daily 04/17/2001)