The Aid Tibet Development Foundation will accept "conditional aid" from home and abroad for the first time this year, the group's secretary-general Zheng Ying said yesterday in Beijing.

 

The government-backed foundation would only previously take free donations from outside of the region.

 

It will now accept different forms of conditional funding, such as low interest loans, in a bid to boost development.

 

"But we will never accept financial backing with any political strings attached," Zheng said at a plenum of the foundation's second executive council.

 

"We will work out detailed rules soon in order to attract more economic support to fuel the development of Tibet."

 

The foundation has received more than 200 million yuan (US$25 million) of donations, half of which came from foreign countries, since it was launched in 1987.

 

More than 600 supporting projects, covering many fields such as health care, education and ecological protection, have been carried out to help improve people's living conditions.

 

The Brightness Project has helped nearly 20,000 cataract sufferers regain their eyesight since it was launched in 1993.

 

Money provided by the project for medical care totals more than 113 million (US$14 million) so far, and the region's first non-profit ophthalmic hospital was set up in Lhasa last September as part of the scheme.

 

The Sunshine Program, another aid project launched by the foundation to promote solar energy utilization in the autonomous region, has installed special equipment for hundreds of local rural households since last June.

 

The foundation was set up by the 10th Panchen Lama and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, the first chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

 

(China Daily March 14, 2006)