Over the past two decades, 11,751 college graduates have served in different sectors of the Tibet autonomous region, contributing to its overall development, regional authorities said on Wednesday.

The volunteer campaign to mobilize college graduates to serve in China's underdeveloped western regions was launched in 2003 by the Communist Youth League of China, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Tibet has been a beneficiary.

"This marks the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the country's Western Project in Tibet. It has been an important channel for cultivating talent in the region," said Dawa Tsering, deputy Party secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Youth League.

Volunteer graduates have contributed greatly to the improvement of talent and have promoted exchanges with various ethnic groups, he said.

"The project has also greatly contributed to the region's long-term stability and high-quality development," he said.

Of the graduates sent to work in the region so far, 3,937 chose to continue working in Tibet after their service periods ended.

"These college graduates have been working in all 68 counties and districts of the region's seven cities and prefectures, and they have served in sectors including social governance, education, health, youth, agriculture, animal husbandry, water conservation, poverty alleviation and rural vitalization," Dawa Tsering said.

Huang Xiaodong is a participant of the project. After graduating from Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications in Shaanxi province, he joined the project in August 2021 and began working in Tibet's department of ecology and environment.

"Where the motherland needs me, that's where I belong," Huang said. "As a volunteer for the Western Project, I feel that it has provided me with an opportunity to serve people at the grassroots level, and it has allowed me to go to the place where the country needs me the most."

He said the project has instilled in him the importance of serving others.

"I have learned to offer people my heart, sincerity and honesty," he said.

In April, the Communist Youth League of China and the ministries of education, finance and human resources and social security held a teleconference regarding the Western Project and announced the addition of a new round of college graduates and postgraduates who were joining the effort.

This year, participation is capped at 20,000 people, and the project is divided into seven sub-projects — rural education, rural construction, rural healthcare, grassroots youth work, rural social governance and service in the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet. In Tibet, volunteers will start their service later this month.

Over the past 20 years, more than 465,000 college graduates have been recruited and dispatched to serve in grassroots-level communities in over 2,000 county-level regions in the country.