Fujian province will further deepen its support for the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in industry, employment, consumption and talent, to help it develop and beat poverty.

Yu Weiguo, Party chief of Fujian, made the comment at the 24th annual meeting on Fujian-Ningxia cooperation in Yinchuan, Ningxia, on Friday. It's part of an effort under which economically developed regions help less-developed ones in China. Cooperation was first established in 1996.

Chen Run'er, Ningxia's Party chief, said the region hopes to expand to more fields of cooperation and boost its poverty reduction efforts.

Over the past 24 years, Fujian has sent 183 officials to Ninxia, pouring in funding of more than 3 billion yuan ($440 million) and helping to build 385 kilometers of highways, 15,000 wells and 15,300 hectares of terraced fields. It has also helped renovate more than 2,000 dangerous buildings and improve rural infrastructure such as water systems, power grids, roads and radio and television broadcasting.

Fujian has helped renovate or build 236 schools, financed more than 90,000 students from poor families and initiated 323 medical health projects, such as maternity and childcare hospitals and medical training centers.

Currently, Ningxia has about 5,700 companies or merchants from Fujian. About 50,000 people from Ningxia work in Fujian.