Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee
of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),
called on the regions with large populations of different ethnic
minority groups to unite all ethnic groups in the region to achieve
faster economic and social development.
Jia stressed that the ethnic minority regions must develop with
the theme of unity and common prosperity during an inspection tour
in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region between July
13 and 17.
Jia asked the regions to take advantage of their local resources
and frontier ports to enhance trading cooperation with neighboring
countries in petroleum, timber, nonferrous metal, and agricultural
and livestock breeding.
Jia visited farmers and herdsmen in their homes, farmlands or
grasslands, as well as several well-known enterprises including
Yili Group, China's leading company in the diary industry.
Statistics show that China's 123 million ethnic minority people,
about 9.4 percent of the 1.3 billion population, live in 55
minority groups, 22 of which have their own languages.
(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2006)
