Silverbird
04-10-2008, 01:39 PM
......The sheer cost of this state-sponsored development has been extraordinarily high. In 2001, for example, for every renminbi of Tibet's economic growth, central-government spending increased by Rmb2, according to Mr Fischer. In that year alone, state spending increased by 75%. By 2004 the situation had changed only slightly, with Rmb0.65 of economic growth requiring only Rmb1 of increased subsidies and state investment.
Perversely, the disproportionately large government spending on the construction of big state projects, and on the expansion of the government and party administration, has widened social divisions within Tibetan society. A tiny share of the local population, including Tibetan cadres, administrators and other government workers, has become affluent at the expense of the overwhelming majority of Tibetans who remain poor, rural and illiterate. Unlike in other provinces where expenditures have been adjusted to boost education and reduce bureaucratic fat, security concerns have dictated the opposite in Tibet. Only 6% of total government investment in Tibet in 2005 went towards education, Mr Fischer revealed. Meanwhile, 13% was spent on government and party administration. As a result, 45% of the Tibetan population were illiterate in 2005 and unable to benefit from the available economic opportunities, which inevitably require the knowledge of Mandarin Chinese....:notrust:
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11021130
Perversely, the disproportionately large government spending on the construction of big state projects, and on the expansion of the government and party administration, has widened social divisions within Tibetan society. A tiny share of the local population, including Tibetan cadres, administrators and other government workers, has become affluent at the expense of the overwhelming majority of Tibetans who remain poor, rural and illiterate. Unlike in other provinces where expenditures have been adjusted to boost education and reduce bureaucratic fat, security concerns have dictated the opposite in Tibet. Only 6% of total government investment in Tibet in 2005 went towards education, Mr Fischer revealed. Meanwhile, 13% was spent on government and party administration. As a result, 45% of the Tibetan population were illiterate in 2005 and unable to benefit from the available economic opportunities, which inevitably require the knowledge of Mandarin Chinese....:notrust:
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11021130