More than 200 Aid-Tibet projects were signed with an expected investment of over 21.5 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) at the annual Aid-Tibet Poverty Alleviation Work Conference on Monday in Tibet's Nyingchi city.

In 2019, the Aid-Tibet projects involve 17 provinces and cities and 16 State-owned and private enterprises to invest in various industries and education as well as the poverty alleviation programs through consumption, employment and technology.

In order to help the development of the Tibet autonomous region, a severely poverty-stricken province, Beijing launched an aid project that required the rest of the country to assist the region at the Third National Symposium on Work in Tibet in 1994.

The region first started conducting the annual Aid-Tibet poverty alleviation work conference in 2016. Up to now, more than 25 projects have started construction with over 6 billion yuan in funding.

The number of poor people in Tibet has declined from 590,000 to 150,000 since China launched the battle against poverty, and the poverty rate has dropped to 5.6 percent from 25.2 percent. The region aims to eradicate poverty by the end of 2019.