BEIJING, Jan 16 (Oana-Xinhua) -- China has joined with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to train thousands of senior professionals for the country's impoverished western region.

Wednesday's China Daily reported that the Ministry of Personnel and UNDP have reached an agreement on a package of personnel training programmes.

The UNDP will invest one million U.S. dollars in the next three years and domestic funds will also be earmarked to support the programme.

During the 2002-2004 period, the two sides will conduct investigations, hold seminars and initiate 57 training courses to train a total of 1,050 people at home and 345 others abroad.

The programme will also invite a total of 29 overseas experts.

Zhang Xuezhong, minister of personnel, said, "As a developing country, China has to make the best of domestic and international resources for its future social progress and economic growth."

Lack of trained personnel is one of the biggest problems bottlenecking the development of western China, according to an official survey.

In western China's interior provinces and regions, there are only 161 trained professionals for every 10,000 persons working in State-run enterprises and institutions, the survey disclosed.

This is lower than the 206 per 10,000 in eastern China and only 70 percent of the national average.

In another development, Chinese anti-poverty authorities have launched a massive scheme to train 2,800 hospital presidents in the western regions with modern management knowledge.

The three-year "Angel Project" includes helping install computer management systems in 1,500 western hospitals if their presidents are qualified after training.

-- Oana-Xinhua