A project-signing ceremony was held in Lhasa, the Tibet autonomous region, on Wednesday.

City government officials and entrepreneurs intended to invest in Tibet attended the ceremony.

According to the city government, agreements for 148 projects, with an investment totaling 104 billion yuan ($17 billion), were signed. Of them, 45 projects, with an investment of 10.9 billion yuan, have been launched.

"Tibet is relatively economically underdeveloped. There are about 58,000 impoverished people in Lhasa, accounting for 19.7 percent of the nomad and farmer population," said Qi Zhala, Party chief of Lhasa.

"Lhasa will improve its investment environment to support business operations here," he said.