Metalnewsnet 30 Jun ：

China News Service reported that the government launched an initiative to draw foreign investment into the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region nearly a year after deadly riots rocked the capital city Urumqi.

The State Administration of Industry and Commerce said in a statement that the foreign investment would be injected into almost every sector: manufacturing, agriculture, technology and the service industry.

Xinjiang has a population of more than 20 million people including around eight million Uyghurs an ethnic Muslim minority.

Xinjiang has been the site of simmering unrest for a number of years. Thousands of people were injured and hundreds killed in riots that broke out in 2008 and again in July and September of last year.

Earlier this year, the Chinese government issued plans to invest USD 1.5 billion into 82 cities and towns in the country western areas particularly Xinjiang to develop local housing, employment and education.

The government is hoping that the USD 1.5 billion plan will help ease conflicts and ward off potential unrest.

( from Global Times)