BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese central authorities have set down strategic plans for far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to achieve leapfrog development and lasting stability.

At a central work conference on Xinjiang's development concluded Wednesday, President Hu Jintao said Xinjiang should embark on a development path with Chinese characteristics and one that suits the region's situation.

Despite Xinjiang's rapid development in recent years, it is still lagging behind the country's economically-developed eastern region due to various historical, natural and social reasons, he said.

Hu said the region should comprehensively push forward its economic, political, cultural and social development and enhance Party building under the new circumstances.

By 2015, per capita GDP in Xinjiang should catch up with the country's average level and the residents' income and their access to basic public services should reach the average level of the country's western regions, Hu said.

"Marked" improvement must be achieved in Xinjiang's infrastructure, self-development capacity, ethnic unity, and social stability within five years, he told the conference.

Xinjiang should fulfill the goal of achieving a moderately prosperous society in all aspects by 2020 by promoting coordinated regional development. It should also improve people's living standards and build an eco-friendly environment, as well as ensure ethnic unity, social stability and security, he said.

Hu said managing Xinjiang well under the new circumstances is essential for improving the living standards of all ethnic groups. It is also a strategic imperative to ensure the development of the western region.

It is the common aspiration and responsibility of Chinese people of all ethnic groups to accelerate the process of building "a prosperous, harmonious and stable socialist Xinjiang," he said.

Hu noted that like other regions of the country, the society's principal problem is the gap between the fast growing material and cultural needs of the people and the low level of social production.

Hu vowed to invest more to improve the region's public services by implementing major projects to provide local people with a "modern and civilized" living environment.

He added resource development should be directly linked to the welfare of the local people.

Hu also called for comprehensive education about ethnic unity in order to help local people identify with the "great motherland, the Chinese nationality, Chinese culture, and a socialist development path with Chinese characteristics."

He urged efforts to oppose and strike down all ethnic separatist forces to ensure social order and people's normal life.

Hu said the supportive policies will also apply to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a unique economic and semi-military government organization of about 2.5 million people, and pledged more government funding to boost its development and improve the social security of its employees.

ECONOMIC SUPPORT

At the meeting, Premier Wen Jiabao said the central authorities have decided to launch major support policies for Xinjiang, calling them necessary to accelerate the region's economic and social development.

He said Xinjiang will be the first region in China to start reform of resource taxes with a shift to taxing crude oil and natural gases by price rather than volume.

Under another tax policy to be introduced, qualified enterprises in impoverished areas in Xinjiang will be exempted from income tax for two years and allowed a 50 percent reduction for another three years, Wen said.

He said Xinjiang and the XPCC will continue to enjoy preference in receiving central government investment, which will more than double the total investment in fixed assets in Xinjiang over the next five years compared to the previous period.

The government will encourage joint-equity commercial banks, foreign banks, and banks of various kinds to open outlets and branches in remote areas in Xinjiang, he said.

Wen also said the government will appropriately approve more undeveloped land for construction and development and expand the scale of consumption of natural gas in Xinjiang.

He stressed the first and foremost goal of the policies are to "ensure and improve the well-being of the people in Xinjiang."

All the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee - Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang - attended the conference.

The People's Daily, the CPC's flagship newspaper, will carry an editorial Friday outlining the central government's plans for Xinjiang's leapfrog development.

DEMONSTRATION OF UNITY

"Such a top-level meeting on Xinjiang is the first of its kind to be held since New China was founded. It laid out an all-embracing blueprint for Xinjiang's future, and will play a significant role in boosting the region's development, stability and the border areas' security," said Hao Shiyuan, an expert on ethnology and anthropology and deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"I believe only in China, with its socialist system, can the central government mobilize all the nation's finances, resources and manpower to support a single region's development," said Hao, also president of the Chinese Ethnological Society.

"The combination of three sources - central government support, assistance from the economically developed provinces, and Xinjiang's self-development - demonstrates the spirit of unity and common endeavor. It will surely bring people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang closer," he said.

Ma Dazheng, deputy director of the Research Center of China's Border History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said:"while stressing the leapfrog development in Xinjiang's economy, the CPC Central Committee also underscores the region's overall development, such as education and personnel training."

"The people's livelihood is another major concern of the CPC Central Committee, which stressed bringing tangible benefits to the general public at the meeting. The people's livelihood is the foundation of development and stability," said Ma.

"Another highlight of the meeting is that the CPC Central Committee makes clear that Xinjiang's stability concerns the country's stability and Xinjiang's issue is more than a single region's issue. That's why the CPC Central Committee is to mobilize the strength of the entire Party and the entire nation to help Xinjiang achieve a leapfrog development," he said.

"The meeting gives us inspiring news," said Rayim Ismail, a resident of Uygur ethnic group in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, Thursday.

He is moving from a shantytown to a new area in the city with better living conditions under a government-funded housing project.

"I am delighted to see more and more good policies issued for us," he said.