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To: goldsnow who wrote (13310)	7/4/1999 11:44:00 PM
From: hui zhou	Respond to of 17770

FEATURE-Internet brings market economy to Tibet 11:03 a.m. Jul 04, 1999 Eastern By Andrew Browne LHASA, China (Reuters) - Internet stocks may be soaring all around the globe, but nowhere are they flying higher than in Tibet, the ''Roof of the World.'' Under the shadow of the Potala Palace at the Lhasa Stock Trading Floor, so-called ''Internet concept'' stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen have fired popular imaginations, just as they have excited investors everywhere else in China. ''Everybody is looking for profits,'' said trading floor manager Deng Chan. The Internet phenomenon in Tibet underscores the startling changes under way in the economy of the Chinese-ruled Himalayan region. Investment fads and fashions are spinning into Lhasa almost as quickly as they arrive in any other Chinese city. ''It's the advent of the market economy,'' said Arthur Halcombe, President of the Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund, a private aid agency. FROM BARTER TO CASH The implications are as profound for Beijing as for the exiled government of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan god-king who fled his homeland in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule. In a single leap, Tibet has moved from barter trade to cash -- and now securities. Lhasa's stock trading floor, with its computerized order-placing booths, bustles more than the ancient market around Lhasa's stock trading floor, with its computerized order-placing booths, bustles more than the ancient market around the Jokhang temple, where Buddhist pilgrims haggle for white prayer scarves and yak butter. By catapulting Tibet into the market economy, China hopes to integrate its remote Himalayan region with the rest of China and dampen separatist agitation. ''Economic development can solve our problems,'' said Lhasa foreign trade official Tang Wei. Some problems, to be sure. Tibetans are better educated, live longer and have more access to health care than ever before. Well-paid jobs have opened up for them in booming cities. True, average per capita rural incomes are just 1,158 yuan ($139) per year, and in the cities still only 6,400 yuan -- well behind the national average. But the gap is closing. Lhasa's economy surged by 16 percent last year, and the economy of Tibet grew 10 percent, pumped up by central government subsidies of 1.0 billion yuan. That compares with national growth of 7.8 percent growth in 1998. LIFE GETS SWEETER Pincuo Lewang, 25, is one of a growing number of Tibetans who have reason to thank Beijing for the crash development. The son of a shepherd, he studied law in China and is now an upwardly mobile professional in Lhasa. By day he works in a state-owned transport company and by night he drives a Volkswagen taxi. He is saving to get married, and as he considers his future with his bride-to-be, life has never looked sweeter. ''There are opportunities for everyone,'' said Lewang. He scoffs at criticism that most of the best jobs and much of the wealth created in Lhasa have gone into the pockets of Han Chinese settlers. If anything, he blames the gap in living standards on Tibetans themselves. ''They work harder,'' he said of the settlers. ''Tibetans get a little bit of money and they start drinking and whoring. ''If the government denied us opportunities we would have a right to complain. But the system is fair to all.'' Beijing gets little international credit for improving the lives of 2.4 million Tibetans, many of them scattered in nomad tents and mud villages. In part, that is because the exiled Tibetan government has managed to divert world attention to Chinese human rights abuses in the region. DILEMMA FOR THE DALAI LAMA Yet the economic transformation of Tibet -- and success stories like Lewang -- have put both the Dalai Lama and Beijing in a bind. From China's viewpoint, Tibetan prosperity without a political solution involving the Dalai Lama is dangerously fragile. The Dalai Lama, meanwhile, can only watch helplessly while his homeland is transformed beyond all recognition. For now, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate is unwilling to settle for less than political autonomy for Tibet; China is not prepared to sacrifice control. Neither side shows any sign of compromise. Lewang is too focused on marriage and career to fret much about the standoff. Indeed, as a trained Tibetan he is counting on positive discrimination to pull him further up the ladder. ''My long-term future is very good,'' he said, beaming. ''My work unit needs to develop well-educated Tibetans -- and there aren't many of us around.'' Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.