Since the project began in 1999, China has committed over 700 billion yuan (about $85.4 billion) to  encouraging economic growth in the underdeveloped Western Regions, a senior official said Friday.

Speaking at a summit of financial experts and private entrepreneurs in Xi'an, the capital of the northwest Shanxi Province, Wang Zhibao, deputy director of the Office of the Western Regions said a host of major infrastructure projects had been launched under the scheme.  These included the Qinghai-Tibet ‘Roof of the World’ railway and the west-east gas pipeline. A total of 36 major projects worth 630 billion yuan were launched in the region between 2000 to 2002, mostly with central funding. This year, the central government planned start 14 new projects, he said.

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