China issues Tibetan development report

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The Beijing-based China Tibetology Research Center has  released a report outlining Tibet's economic and social development over the past 50 years.

Industries such as IT, tourism, and services have become Tibet's pillar industries. In 2008, those added value industries in Tibet reached nearly 22 billion yuan, accounting for over 55.5 percent of the GDP.

In the less than 6 decades from Tibet's peaceful liberation in 1951 to 2008, the local Tibetan population increased from about 1 million to over 2.8 million. The average life expectancy in Tibet has also risen to 67 years, from 35.5 in old Tibet before 1959.

Before the democratic reform, education was monopolized by monasteries and more than 95 percent of Tibetans were illiterate. Nowadays, illiteracy among adults under the age of 50 has fallen to below 2.4 percent.

As of the end of 2006, over 95 percent of Tibet's primary school students and 94 percent of the junior high school students had been offered bilingual courses in Tibetan and Chinese,

The total number of Tibet's education institutions reached 1,017 by the end of 2008. 6 of them are higher learning institutions.