Poverty alleviation fund to support overseas Chinese and relatives who return to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region should be established, said members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

GuoLina, member of CPPCC and deputy chief engineer of Xinjiang Institute of Architectural Design and Research, said Xinjiang is an important home of overseas Chinese in northwest with more than 500,000 returning overseas Chinese and relatives.

"Nearly 95 percent of them are ethnic groups, living in border areas and struggling to improve their livelihood on their own," she said. "They need help and aid from government and society."

Zhao Yang, member of CPPCC and former deputy director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Chinese State Council, said he is also planning to propose such issue during the two sessions.

"CPPCC organized an investigation on overseas Chinese affairs in Xinjiang last September, and I participated in that investigation," said Zhao. "We found out that about 300,000 returned overseas Chinese and relatives in Xinjiang live in poverty."

Zhao suggested Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council to set five years of special poverty alleviation fund with about two million yuan every year.

"At the same time, we should explore to support them from agriculture, handicraft industry and other areas and strive to alleviate this situation in five years."

"In the past decades of reform and opening-up, overseas Chinese have contributed a lot to China's fast development, however, western regions didn't benefit too much from this," added Zhao. "Later, we will work hard to encourage overseas Chinese including those from Xinjiang to help the development of Xinjiang."

"This means a lot, not only to economic development, but also to stability of the society."