Tibet plans to provide housing for 52,000 farmers and herders in 2008, said officials at the first plenary session of the ninth People's Congress of Tibet Autonomous Region.

The project to improve their living conditions began in 2006, when the regional government set a target of building homes for 220,000 households. That would mean housing 80 percent of the region's farmers and herders by the end of 2010.

During the past two years, the regional government spent more than 1.3 billion yuan (US$179.3 million) to help farmers move into brick houses from wood-and-earth residences and nomadic herders to settle down.

To date, 570,000 farmers and herders from 112,000 households have taken part in the project. The per capita housing area in Tibet has reached 36.4 square meters against 16.8 sq.m. before the project.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2008)