BEIJING - China on Wednesday unveiled a plan to support universities in its less developed central and western regions, with these institutions having been left behind by peers in the country's richer coastal areas.

The ministries of education and finance along with the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top planning agency, jointly issued the plan designed to help strengthen the faculties and facilities of universities in central and western China before 2020.

Government authorities plan to inject 10 billion yuan (around $1.62 billion) between 2012 and 2015 into 100 higher education institutions where bachelor degree programs are available in those regions, according to the official document.

Zhang Daliang, head of the higher education department under the Ministry of Education, said at a press conference on Wednesday that the relative weakness of these universities has created a bottleneck for higher education development in central and western China.

He said it was an urgent matter to shore up strength in this regard.

Currently, the number of on-campus students studying for bachelor degrees or junior college qualifications in central and western China account for 65.5 percent of the total nationwide.