LHASA, April 6 -- About 200 supermarkets will be built or renovated in rural areas of Tibet Autonomous Region this year, to provide cheap and quality commodities for farmers and herdsmen, said an official with the Tibet regional Bureau of Commerce.

    Shang Huinian, an official of the bureau, said that in the sparsely populated rural areas, it takes a long way for farmers and herdsmen to reach a nearby supermarket.

    The Ministry of Commerce has launched a project to encourage large and medium sized supermarkets to open chain stores in remote rural areas. The move has achieved remarkable progress in Tibet.

    The Tibet regional government has offered preferential policies for these enterprises by granting a three-year full loan interest subsidies for their long-term bank loans, in addition to the one-year loan interest subsidy already supplied by the central government.

    Tibet built 379 such supermarkets last year, and the 200 new supermarkets are expected to open in the second half of the year. All the supermarkets built this year will be adjacent to farmers and herdsmen, Shang said.