Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has planned to invest more than 240 billion yuan (36.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 350 key projects this year, local authorities said Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

The number of projects with an investment of over 1.5 billion yuan reached 205, accounting for 58.6 percent of the total, said Zhang Yongliang, an official with the regional economic planner.

Projects in the culture and tourism sector are expected to see investment grow by more than 1.3 times from last year, as the region aims to attract more than 200 million tourists in 2021 and more than 400 million tourists in 2025.

Zhang also noted a significant increase in the number of new infrastructure projects from previous years and strong growth in projects in the emerging industries.

Xinjiang saw fixed-asset investment grow by 16.2 percent year on year in 2020, 13.6 percentage points above the national average, as the region picked up pace in development, according to official data.