Guangzhou has named the building a just society a key goal of its 11th Five-Year Program, marking the first time a spiritual concept has been introduced to the usual economic-themed development blueprint.

Guangzhou Mayor Zhang Guangning told the city's delegates to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference recently that the government would promote a just society where people could enjoy an equal share in the wealth, the Information Times reported.

To achieve social justice, the government would start with "tackling problems that have been affecting the people's immediate interests," Zhang said.

Once an icon of China's modernization, Guangdong is one of the country's wealthiest provinces and led the way in instituting late leader Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms in the 1980s. But swift economic growth has also led to social problems such as rampant corruption among cadres, a huge income disparity and an increase in crime across the city.

There is also escalating conflict between Guangzhou natives and newcomers, most of whom are migrant workers seeking jobs in factories in the provincial capital.

Hailing the plan as "a bid step forward," Beijing Institute of Technology professor Hu Xingdou was quoted by the South China Morning Post said tremendous pressure from social problems had promoted the city government to take the unprecedented steps of setting a "spiritual "goal in its long-term blueprint.

"The government has realized that if social injustice is not addressed, they might not achieve the economic growth they wish for," he said.

Editor: Donald