(Southcn.com)
On the morning of Jan 25th, the first plenary session of the 13th Guangdong Provincial People's Congress kicked off at Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention Center.
Ma Xingrui, the Governor of Guangdong summarized the progress Guangdong has made during the past five years when delivering the government work report at this session.
Ma said Guangdong's GDP has grown by nearly 8% annually from 5.8 trillion yuan in 2012 to 8.99 trillion yuan in 2017. The province's GDP has secured the top place among other provinces and cities in the country for 29 consecutive years.
Reported by Will, Nan
Infographed by Jasmine, Heather(intern)
Edited by Oliver Ouyang, Simon Highwood
Ma indicated that from 2012 to 2017, Guangdong made efforts to develop the open economy and discover new strengths in international cooperation.
The province plays an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative, with the start of construction on a rail freight line linking Guangdong with Asia and even Europe. The import and export of countries along the Belt and Road has increased by 8% annually.
In the past five years, the actual input of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the province reached USD 123.3 billion, most significantly from the U.S. and other European countries.
The import and export figures for general trade and private enterprises has increased by 8.6% and 11.6% annually.
The Guangdong Free Trade Zone has seen a higher level of construction with 385 items of reform and innovation.
Regarding the implementation of “One country, two policies”, the liberalization of service trade in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has been successful. The principal section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge has been completed and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area initiated. Cooperation across the Pan-Pearl River Delta region has been given a boost.
Finally, the province has seen sister-city relationships develop with 59 cities around the world over these last five years.
