Southwest China's Sichuan Province has declared that all its areas inhabited by ethnic minority Tibetans – two prefectures and one county – have been removed from the country's list of impoverished areas.

It comes after an announcement made by local authorities on Tuesday that 16 more counties in the Tibetan-inhabited areas had got rid of absolute poverty. 

Sichuan's Tibetan-inhabited areas have a population of 2.17 million, with over 46 percent being members of Tibetan ethnic minority group. They live in two prefectures, namely, the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, and the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and in Muli County of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture.

According to official data, a total of 47,000 km of roads have been built and rebuilt in the past decade in the region. Nearly 100,000 farmers and herdsmen have moved into new houses and more than 300,000 people in the Tibetan-inhabited areas have bid farewell to butter lamps.

The province has invested a total of 10.76 billion yuan (around 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in special financial funds for poverty alleviation, and 28.694 billion yuan (around 4.1 billion U.S. dollars) in integrated financial funds for agriculture to shake off poverty in these areas.

The province has pledged to continue its policies to offer more job opportunities, and increase local people's income. Efforts will also be made to improve their living conditions so that they will not return back to poverty.