Scores of foreign diplomats visited Monday an on-going exhibition on nationwide assistance to Tibet held in the Ethnic Culture Palace in Beijing.

    With hundreds of photos, movies, scale models and stage performance, the exhibition provides a systematic show of the assistance the Chinese interior has offered to Tibet over the past five decades.

    Since the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, the Chinese government has adopted favorable policies in terms of finance and tax, and extended enormous financial, technical and personnel aids to the region.

    The nationwide aids have remarkably boosted the social and economic development in Tibet, said Zhao Qizheng, director of the Information Office of the State Council, at a welcome ceremony.

    According to statistics, Tibet has totally absorbed as much as 50 billion yuan (some six billion U.S. dollars) in investment and subsidies from the central government during the past five decades.

    Since the 1980s, the central government and many local provinces have assisted Tibet to complete over 100 important projects with an overall investment of more than five billion yuan.

    The progress made by Tibet during recent years has drawn great appreciation from many foreign guests.

    The Chinese interior areas' assistance to Tibet will not only speed up Tibet's economic takeoff, but also be conducive to maintaining a sound social order and vigorous culture there, said Colin G. Mitchell, regional representative of the Beijing-based Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

    He added that the type of assistance could be drawn upon by other countries.