Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Monday called for more attention to the development of the country's border areas that are inhabited by ethnic minorities.

"The state policy of developing border areas and granting more benefits to border minorities is aimed at improving their living conditions and strengthening their self development," said Hui at a meeting to discuss a five-year plan on the development of border areas.

China has 55 ethnic minorities accounting for just 8.4 percent of the total population.

Most of the ethnic minority groups live in impoverished western regions and border areas in 10 provinces or autonomous regions such as southwestern Yunnan, Guizhou, northwestern Xinjiang and northern Inner Mongolia.

Hui said the government should strengthen infrastructure construction such as building roads, rebuilding homes, improving drinking water, irrigation, electricity and communications so that each village will have at least one telephone.

The local government should improve the incomes of border inhabitants, strengthen labor force training and increase investment to alleviate poverty, Hui said, adding border trade and regional economic cooperation should be promoted.

The Ministry of Finance will spend more than 14 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) this year on roads to link ethnic minority communities, according to a meeting of the Ethnic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress in April.

This year's road-building budget is 94 percent more than last year's, according to the meeting.

With 55 ethnic minorities, China has adopted a policy of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities in areas where they live in compact communities.

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2007)