East regions financed 7.86b yuan to west provinces

China's prosperous eastern regions provided 7.86 billion yuan (1.25 billion U.S. dollars) to the less developed western areas for free from 1996 to 2010, a senior official said Friday.

Companies in the eastern provinces and municipalities had invested 697.27 billion yuan in the western regions during the 15 years, Fan Xiaojian, head of the Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development under the State Council, said at a meeting held in west China's Chongqing municipality.

To help the west get rid of poverty, the country's eastern provinces implemented a large number of poverty-reduction programs in the impoverished western regions, and sent tens of thousands of cadres, technicians and volunteers to the west, Fan said.

Currently, the east-help-west scheme is mainly comprised of government assistance, enterprise cooperation and social aid, he added.

In 1996, the central government decided to pair wealthy provinces in the east with less-developed regions in the west in a bid to achieve common prosperity. Ten western provinces and 15 eastern provinces have been paired so far.