Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), called on the regions with large populations of different ethnic minority groups to unite all ethnic groups in the region to achieve faster economic and social development.

Jia stressed that the ethnic minority regions must develop with the theme of unity and common prosperity during an inspection tour in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region between July 13 and 17.

Jia asked the regions to take advantage of their local resources and frontier ports to enhance trading cooperation with neighboring countries in petroleum, timber, nonferrous metal, and agricultural and livestock breeding.

Jia visited farmers and herdsmen in their homes, farmlands or grasslands, as well as several well-known enterprises including Yili Group, China's leading company in the diary industry.

Statistics show that China's 123 million ethnic minority people, about 9.4 percent of the 1.3 billion population, live in 55 minority groups, 22 of which have their own languages.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2006)