Premier Zhu Rongji yesterday called for more efforts to develop education for national minorities, which is vital to promote the economic development in minority regions and strengthen the harmony of various nationalities in the country.

Strengthening the harmony between various nationalities and keeping society stable is an important guarantee for the country's modernization undertakings, he said.

Zhu made the remarks when he inspected the Central University of Nationalities, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Zhu said the Party and the central government are always greatly concerned about nationality issues such as poverty elimination, making many favourable policies and measures to support the social and economic development in the minority region.

The university was established in 1951 by the central government aiming to educate officials and various professionals for the country's 55 ethnic groups.

Over the past 50 years, more than 60,000 officials and various academics have graduated from the university.

Most of them have become part of the backbone of different fields in minority regions. Many of them have become top officials in central government and provincial governments.

(China Daily 06/15/2001)