The biggest industrial city in China has pledged to donate 18.19 million yuan (US$2.2 million) to Aksu Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwest China, an official announced yesterday.

Feng Guoqin, vice-mayor of Shanghai, said the donation would be used to fund 28 projects in the Uygur-dominated prefecture in southern Xinjiang, including a teaching building for a local college, a children's welfare house, primary schools and modern office equipment.

Shanghai has provided funding totalling 55 million yuan (US$6.7 million) for 94 projects in the prefecture since 1997, the first year when Shanghai chose the prefecture for regular official assistance.

The projects cover mostly the areas of culture, education, medicine and public health, science and technology.

In addition, Shanghai has been spending 1 million yuan (US$120,000) each year since then in training projects, each involving 100 officials and professionals from the prefecture.

A total of 134 Shanghai officials and professionals have been chosen in four batches to work in the prefecture, using their expertise to promote economic and social development.

China's prosperous coastal areas and various central government departments have been offering assistance to the country's less-developed inland areas during the past decade.

The assistance has been part of efforts made by the central authorities to reduce poverty and narrow the gap between the coastal and inland areas.

The coastal provinces have traditionally been stronger economically. The past two decades saw the gap between eastern and western China widening before the launch of the "Go West" campaign in the late 1990s.