China's ethnic autonomous areas have witnessed distinct improvement of infrastructure and rapid development of foreign trade and tourism, says a white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council Monday.

The white paper titled Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China says that in 2003, the total investment in fixed assets in ethnic autonomous areas was 473.4 billion yuan (57.04 billion US dollars), 3.7 times that of 1994. Of this, 283.7 billion yuan (34.18 billion US dollars) was invested in infrastructure construction, 4.2 times that of 1994.

By the end of 2003, there were 22.73 million fixed telephone users in ethnic autonomous areas, among whom 15.32 million were urban residents. The number of mobile phone users reached 23.07 million.

The white paper says that in 2003, the state-owned railway operation mileage in ethnic autonomous areas reached 15,100 km, a near three-fold increase compared with 1952; the highways open to traffic in those areas totaled 547,800 km, 21 times that in 1952. In addition, the urbanization levels of Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Xinjiang have exceeded the national average.

It says that in 2003, the total value of imports and exports of the ethnic autonomous areas was 13.6 billion US dollars, including 7.9 billion US dollars-worth of imports and 5.7 billion US dollars-worth of exports. The 3,263 foreign-invested enterprises in these areas used 2 billion US dollars of foreign investment in 2003.

In the same year, these areas hosted 123.33 million domestic tourists and 2.15 million international tourists, the incomes from domestic and international tourism reaching 56.3 billion yuan (6.78 billion US dollars) and 600 million US dollars, respectively, says the white paper.