BEIJING, Sept. 24  -- China has been exercising an array of methods to cultivate and recruit officials and professionals of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to an official report released on Thursday.

"A large number of administrative officials and technical professionals from ethnic minority groups have been fostered through training courses and working at the grassroots level, or through work exchanges or job rotation," said the report titled "Historical Witness to Ethnic Equality, Unity and Development in Xinjiang" and released by the State Council Information Office.

Figures show that, in 1955, the number of ethnic minority officials in Xinjiang was 46,000, which increased to 417,000 in 2014, accounting for 51.4 percent of the total officials in the region.

When selecting leading officials and recruiting civil servants, the region implements more flexible policies, such as setting a recruitment ratio and offering directional recruitment in favor of ethnic minorities, so as to make sure that a certain number of ethnic minorities join the civil service.

The proportion of ethnic minority civil servants in the total recruitment increased from 29.9 percent in 2009 to 48.3 percent in 2014.

Also, special support has been given to professional personnel of ethnic minority origins, the report said. Since 1992, the state has put in place a special program to train professionals of ethnic minority origins in key areas of science and technology by holding training courses, advanced studies and exchanges.

By the end of 2014, the region had trained a total 3,917 middle- and high-caliber professionals of ethnic minority origins needed in Xinjiang.

In key areas of science and technology, Xinjiang has established and implemented a fund for special training of science and technology talents of ethnic minority origins since 2000.