In 1994 at the third Central Conference on Tibet Work, the Chinese government formally made the major decision of providing to southwest China's Tibet partner assistance in economy, education, culture and other fields.
Since the current government came to power in 2012, partner assistance efforts to Tibet have been increased further.
In 2014, during the video and teleconference for the 20th anniversary of the work of partner assistance to Tibet, it was proposed that aid funds should be geared towards grass-roots and farm and pastoral areas, with 80% of funds invested in grass-roots work and 80% used to improve people's livelihoods, bringing more direct benefits to all ethnic groups.
From 2013 to 2016, the 17 provinces and cities involved in the partner assistance invested a total of 11.484 billion yuan (1.736 billion US dollars) in funds, providing strong support to Tibet's economic and social development.
In order to solve the practical difficulties of Tibet's medical and educational talent shortage, the central government implemented medical and educational group aid program to Tibet in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Up until June 2017, two batches of aid group made up of 324 medical personnel and 800 teachers from the inland China came to Tibet, while 400 teachers from Tibet went to inland for training.
Partner assistance work to Tibetan-inhabited areas in China's Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan Province has also achieved remarkable results.
Since the partner assistance to Qinghai was implemented in 2010, three groups with a total of 552 officials has been sent to work in Qinghai, and over 8 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars) aid funds and donated funds and materials valued at 500 million yuan (75.5 million US dollars) have been invested. Among them, 4.7 billion yuan (0.7 billion US dollars) were provided from 2013 to 2016. And 1,500 aid projects have been carried out as well.
Besides, in 2014, the State Council of China confirmed economically developed Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhejiang Province, Guangdong Province to be partnered with the four Tibetan autonomous prefectures and 2 Tibetan autonomous counties in southwest China's Sichuan and Yunan Province, as well as Gansu Province in northwest China.
As a result, Tibet and Tibet-inhabited areas in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunan have all be included in the partner assistance plan.
