The on-going Fourth Session of the 12th Guangzhou People's Congress held a press conference on Saturday (March 25) and Guangzhou mayor Zhang Guangning answered the pressing questions.

Zhang summarised Guangzhou's present and future by saying that Guangzhou has had vast achievements, bright prospects, huge responsibilities and absolute confidence. He said that Guangzhou now stands at a new starting point and the city will strive for the success of the 11th five-year plan from 2006 to 2010.

When asked how citizens are going to benefit from the blueprint that Guangzhou's GDP per capita will reach 10,000 US dollars in 2010, Zhang said Guangzhou citizen income will grow 7 percent in the next five years.

According to statistics, Guangzhou citizens had an income of about 18,300 yuan last year, up 8.3 percent and ranking the third in China; while Guangzhou rural resident income was 7,800 yuan, up 6.9 percent and ranking the fifth in the country.

When asked whether an electricity shortage problem will reoccur, Zhang said that electricity supply bas been a bit tense in the first half of the year and the whole situation is expected to be much better in the latter half of the year. Guangzhou will allocate 200 million yuan for extra power units in the first six months and thus there is no need to worry about the shortage problem. In the following six months, new power supply units with capacities of over 6 million kilowatts will be put into operation, which will hopefully relieve the stress on the electrical power supply. It is expected that Guangzhou will not face the same sort of electricity shortages beginning 2007.

Editor: Yan