The road building projects in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region have added at least 500 million yuan (73.1 million U.S. dollars) to the purses of farmers and herders last year, a transport spokesman said Friday.

Tibet spent 4.7 billion yuan in road construction in 2008, including 1.25 billion yuan on projects in rural areas, the spokesman of the regional transport department said.

The investment last year gave road access to 46 towns and 504 villages. "We hired local farmers and herders in all the projects that they are competent for, aiming to increase their income," said the spokesman.

Along with highways, Tibet also built 13 passenger stations and 78 bus stops in rural areas to facilitate travels by farmers and herders.

Tibet has a population of 2.88 million, of whom, 85 percent are farmers and herders.

The plateau region's economy grew by 10.1 percent to 39.2 billion yuan last year, while per capita income for farmers and herders was 3,170 yuan, up 13.7 percent.

The Tibet regional government plans to spend 8 billion yuan to finance infrastructure projects in rural areas in 2009 and 2010, so as to provide safe drinking water, telephone service, more convenient transport and others for farmers and herders.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2009)