LHASA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China had a prospering economy in 2017, with about 44,000 new market entities established in the region, according to local authorities.

The figure brought the total number of registered businesses in the region to 227,000, a year-on-year growth of 19.1 percent.

Registered capital exceeded 1 trillion yuan (162 billion U.S. dollars) last year, up 39.4 percent year on year.

More than 96 percent of the 227,000 firms are in the private sector, up 19.5 percent year on year, with their registered capital exceeding 638 billion yuan.

Noticeably, the number of firms with registered capital of at least 100 million yuan each reached 1,774 by the end of last year.