Abstract: Effort by the Chinese government along with local community has resulted in social, economic and environmental sustainability of region. The benefits have begun to trickledown to the poorest of poor.

The Tibet covers of more than 1.2 million square kilometers and is located on a high plateau averaging 3,600 meters above sea level in south-western of China. According to the national census, the total population of the region is 3.15 million as per 2015 census. It has a strong religious tradition. The Drak Yerpa Monastery is one of the oldest monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism. According to the tradition, each family sends one of its children to the monastery. The children enter the monastery when they are more or less eight years old. They live and get the whole education in the monastery, but their family often visits them. This system creates a strong link between the lay society and the monasteries. As Tibetan families tend to have fewer children now, this rule is not applied that strictly anymore. The earlier economy heavily relied on agriculture, animal husbandry and handicraft.

Innovative approach to development

By modern standards, industrial production did not exist in Tibet before 1952. While the economy and finance in Tibet relied heavily traditional means (agriculture, animal husbandry), handicraft was the main non-agricultural production. Only 6 percent of the total population was engaged in non-agricultural activities in 1952 but for the past two decades, Tibet‘s economy has outperformed China as a whole. Its growth has averaged 12.4 percent annually over that period, compared with a national average of about 10 percent. The Tibetan miracle is the result of massive effort by the Chinese government to foster productive enterprises. It has resulted in tapping the market potentials in the region, promote investment and consumption in addition to opening up new job opportunities even while enhancing people to people contact. China has committed to mop up its domestic resources to improve conditions in Tibet.

The government took initiative to develop infrastructure in a big a way as it realised that this is the only way to fulfill potential of Tibet. Fifteen years ago, in order to get from Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, to Hezuo, the administrative seat of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, it took 8 hours. Since the completion of the highway from Lanzhou to Linxia half-way, it takes four hours. In one year, when the highway from Linxia to Hezuo will be finished, it will take a little more than two hours.

In one of the most ambitious rail ventures ever attempted, the government constructed the railway line from Golmud to Lhasa. At a cost of $4 billion, tracks were built across 550km (340 miles) of permafrost, reaching an altitude of 5,000 metres (16,400 feet)—the highest railway in the world. An extension of the line from Lhasa to Shigatse is constructed to knit Tibet into the rest of China.

The line to Shigatse stretches 250km southwest of Lhasa and reduces the five-hour road journey to two hours by rail. While allowing easier access for tourists to Tibet‘s second city, it makes an area rich in natural resources more accessible.

The results is riding a Tibet train to Lhasa has become a rather good choice of travelling to Tibet for tourists. The train tour is really so impressive both because of the breath-taking scenery along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the railway itself, the blue sky and white clouds, the grasslands with flocks and herds, snow-covered mountains, source of Yangtze River, Hohxil Natural Reserve, etc. Of course, enjoying the high-quality services on the best train in China is also a wonderful experience of travelling to Tibet by train.

By 2020 the Chinese government aims to complete several other major rail routes connecting Tibet with its neighboring provinces of Xinjiang, Sichuan and Yunnan. One of them, a 1,900 km railway from Lhasa to Chengdu, will cost more than $20 billion.

As the infrastructure development moved into top gear, the annual income of even those in the poorest rural Tibet is rising. Roads and railways are making consumer goods more available. Certain social schemes, too, are aimed at making people‘s lives more comfortable. The government says one mass relocation project, completed last year, has moved 2.3m people into houses. The problem was that many of them were farmers, who did not want to move. There are now six airports on the Tibetan plateau. Four of them have opened or expanded since 2010 and there are plans for two more.

Hydropower is being developed in part to meet China's goal of ensuring that non-fossil fuel accounts for 15 percent of the energy supply by 2020. The 9.6 billion-yuan Zangmu hydropower station, on the Yarlung Tsangpo River, became fully operational in October 2015.

There is emergence of a class of Tibetan entrepreneurs who have set up businesses in trade and tourism. Another aspect which is especially important in the Tibetan areas besides the infrastructure is mobile phone coverage. 3G coverage are exceptionally advanced for a region with such a low population density. The Chinese central government has spent huge amounts of money to achieve this, and progress is ongoing.

Poverty Alleviation and Livelihood Improvements

The Tibet autonomous region in its new Five-Year plan has decided to alleviate poverty from the region. In his statement, Ai Juntao, the secretary of the regional government said, "The region has set its goals for the next five years, which are to keep double-digit economic growth on an annual basis and the annual increase of fixed-asset investments to above 20 percent."

The plan proposes to increase per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents by 10 and 13 percent, respectively, and 590,000 rural residents during the next five years. According to the region's 13th Five-Year Plan, Tibet will strive to have 110,000 kilometers of highways by 2020, and all counties and towns should be accessible by asphalt roads, and all administrative villages have roads. Almost, 2.3 million farmers have been moved into "solid and convenient houses," and emphasises the resettlement of these citizens from poverty-stricken areas. As a result the rural impoverished population has decreased by 3.57 million.

Beijing focuses on trying to ensure that more Tibetans are equipped to succeed in the new economy, an approach that also helps it to promote its vision of Tibet as an integral part of a multi-ethnic Chinese motherland. Tibetans are given preferential access to higher education and to government jobs. The government is encouraging locals to incubate industries.

In 2015, the region reported 12 percent growth in the per capita disposal income of its farmers and herders to 8,244 yuan ($1,265), maintaining double-digit growth for 13 consecutive years. Over the past five years, the local government has invested 78.7 billion yuan in farming and stock breeding. Development of other industries also helped create job opportunities and boost incomes.

Focus on green development

There is a strong consensus at the government level that environmental conservation on the Tibetan plateau is of national interest. The legislation for Tibetan plateau ecological compensation mechanism is the best guarantee for environmental conservation on the plateau. The importance of environmental conservation to national interests was signalled by the strategic plan formulated to advance the ecological civilization at the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In line with its promise of environmental conservation, the government initiated project in Chumar Village. It is located in the Sanjiangyuan (Source of Three Rivers) National Conservation Area, which is known as the "Water wer of China." The village is a very important water source area of the northern origin of Yangtze River. The Party and government of Chumar, in line with the general plan of the Sanjiangyuan Comprehensive Experimental Zone and the application of the policies of the national ecological development model zone, have determined to develop Chumar as an Ecological Civilization Model Area. To this end, the Township Party Committee and government of Chumar invited Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Protection Association to work in cooperation.

A brand new solar powered bus has been running in Lhasa to support environment since November 2015. The use of solar energy in Tibet is one of the best ways of creating clean energy. The government has taken steps to setup photovoltaic power plants in Lhasa, Shannan and Xigaze. For Tibet, green energy does not only protect environment, but also promotes the development of economy and tourism. China‘s Longyuan Power has installed of the world‘s highest wind farm, located in Tibet. The company has installed five turbines on a wind farm about 4,900 meters above sea level and plans to install a further 28 wind turbines located in Naqu Prefecture in southwest China‘s Tibet Autonomous Region. Once fully complete, the farm will generate 15MW of energy, enough to power 13,500 homes.

Integrating Traditions with Modernity

The Chinese public educational system has also made huge efforts to preserve and develop the Tibetan culture, language and religion. National Minority Universities have played an important role in this. Many students actually get their education both from formal courses in public universities and colleges and from informal courses organized in the monasteries. Earlier, Tibetans faced serious problem when trying to use computers and smart phones need installing additional fonts and input methods before they can work with Tibetan characters. Apple has solved this problem: since 2011, all versions of MacOS and iOS have got integrated support for Tibetan.

President Xi Jinping has underscored the importance of national and ethnic unity as the key to stability in Tibet. "Key efforts in the work for Tibet should be spent on ensuring national unity and consolidating ethnic unity, realizing long-term and comprehensive social stability as an obligatory task," Xi said during a two-day meeting related to the Tibet Autonomous Region held in Beijing.

In a white paper published in "Chinese Journal of International Law" the government has outlined China's policy regarding, promotion of Tibetan culture as well as the motives behind such policy and promotion. It details the learning, use and development of the spoken and written Tibetan languages, the inheritance, protection and promotion of the Tibetan cultural heritage, the respect for the religious beliefs and native customs, and the all-round development of modern science, education and the media. The paper concludes that Tibetan culture is blooming with new vigor and energy in the new age and profoundly influencing the life of Tibetans and the development of Tibet's modernization through its diverse content and innovative forms.

Demographic growth among Tibetans is quite impressive, due to increased life expectancy. National minorities can have 2-3 children and under some conditions even more. The finite natural resources will have to be shared among an ever increasing population.

One Belt, One Road

The Chinese government has come out with new doctrine "One Belt One Road" as integrated blueprint of the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR). The vision envisages that the completed Silk Road would impact 4.4 billion people and generate trade above $2.5 trillion. Projects like these were the real reasons for backing the resurgence of Eurasia, marking a real paradigm shift in the global economy under President Xi.

A vision document jointly prepared by a composite team from the Ministries of Commerce, Foreign Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)—a top organisation that steers the Chinese economy—has, with precision, revealed the vast geographic parameters of China‘s "One Belt One Road" initiative.

The "belt and road" run through the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, connecting the vibrant East Asian economic circle at one end with the developed European economic circle at the other, says the government report. Specifically, the SREB focusses on bringing together China, Central Asia, Russia and Europe (the Baltic); linking China with the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea through Central Asia and West Asia; and connecting China with South-East Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean. The 21st-Century MSR, in turn, is designed to go from China‘s coast to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route, and from China‘s coast through the South China Sea to the South Pacific in the other.

On land, the initiative will focus on jointly building a new Eurasian Land Bridge and developing China-Mongolia-Russia, China-Central Asia-West Asia and China-Indochina Peninsula economic corridors.

The document identifies specific gateways that will connect China with other Silk Road economies. Xinjiang province in the west will be the connecting hub for Central, South and West Asian countries. It would be one of the terminals of the Pakistan-China economic corridor.

Similarly, China‘s province of Heilongjiang will become the gateway for Mongolia and Russia‘s Far East. The area would be central for the development of the Eurasian high-speed transport corridor linking Beijing with Moscow.

China wishes to leverage Tibet‘s geographic location to extend a Silk Road node to Nepal. It wants to connect with Nepal and South Asia through an extension of the Qinghai-Tibet railway.

Open Development of Tibet

In conclusion, Infrastructure has reached a level which has allowed the integration of the area into the Chinese and global economy. The Chinese policy of "harmonious society" has resulted in socially balanced development. The Chinese economy has achieved a level of development where more and more people can afford travelling just for pleasure. The emerging tourism industry has channelled considerable funds to the Tibetan areas.

Tibetans have learned from Chinese of the Han, Hui and other nationalities how to engage in certain business activities where no Tibetan tradition existed like retail trade and tourism. The government is trying to improve access to start-up capital for Tibetan entrepreneurs. Providing them with adequate funding is certainly an important factor. Organizational help is being provided to local businesses to access wholesale companies or international travel agencies could help them to improve their benefit margin and to extend their visibility and range.

The approach of all around development is creating sustainable Tibetan society where social, economic and environmental equilibrium is of paramount importance. With the help of the Chinese government, Tibet has steered itself into a fast lane of development together with the rest of China. The development and progress of Tibet shows that 360 degree development can be achieved by innovative spirit and inventiveness.

(Mewati Sitaram Bholaram, Senior Correspondent，Mumbai Messenger Newspaper)