Another 16 counties in the Tibetan areas in southwest China's Sichuan Province have been removed from the country's list of impoverished counties, local authorities said.

To date, all the 32 counties in the Tibetan areas in Sichuan have shaken off poverty, according to the provincial authorities on Tuesday.

Sichuan's Tibetan areas have a population of 2.17 million, including 1.6 million Tibetans.

In the past decade, a total of 47,000 km of roads have been built and rebuilt in the region. Nearly 100,000 farmers and herdsmen have moved into new houses and more than 300,000 people in the Tibetan areas have bid farewell to butter lamps.