With ongoing strategic economic restructuring, South China's Guangdong Province is set to present tremendous business opportunities for overseas investors, said Provincial Governor Huang Huahua.

"The various business sectors in Guangzhou are increasingly creating sound opportunities and handsome returns for investors," Huang said during an interview with China Daily.

The investment climate of Guangdong keeps improving, including improvements in infrastructure and the communications and transportation networks, said Huang.

"We (the provincial government) are dedicated to providing quality services to overseas investors, and to safeguarding their legitimate interests," Huang said, adding that Guangdong is one of the best investment destinations in China.

As the starting point of the renowned maritime silk road, Guangdong enjoys a long history of foreign trade.

The province has built up long-term and stable economic relations with more than 200 countries and regions. Investors from more than 100 countries and regions have invested in more than 100,000 projects in the province.

The world's top 500 firms have set up 518 projects in the province. Overseas investors have established more than 200 research and development (R&D) centres, procurement centres and regional headquarters in Guangdong.

And now the province is poised to take the lead in importing "foreign brains" to support its economic construction.

The province employed 166,000 and 167,000 foreigners as experts in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Both figures accounted for more than one-third of the country's total that reached 455,000 and 488,000 in the two years respectively.

Eighty-five per cent of the foreign experts work for the province's foreign-funded companies and joint ventures. To maintain its growth momentum, Guangdong provincial government has decided to invite more foreign experts to work in State-owned enterprises, organizations and government departments.

"With the unveiling of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) and the rolling-out of a number of regional economic co-operation schemes, Guangdong will have a brighter future," Huang said.

The scenarios include one covering 11 administrative regions in South China, or the Pan-Pearl River Delta region, a Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong and Macao, and one between China and ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations).

Guangdong is a leading province in the country in terms of the industrial sector, Huang said.

The provincial government has been stepping up efforts to optimize its industrial structure, to plan for the nine major industrial sectors and to support the pillar industries to improve competitiveness.

The nine major industrial sectors electronic information, electric systems and machinery, petrochemicals, textiles and garments, food and beverages, building materials, paper making, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles - have enhanced their roles in the overall economy.

Guangdong has kept the number one place in economy and foreign trade among all the provinces in China since the reform and the opening-up policy was adopted more than two decades ago, said Huang.

Guangdong ranks first in the country in a number of economic indicators, including gross domestic product (GDP), retail volume, industrial added-value, individuals' bank savings, tax revenue, the government's revenue, fixed-asset investment, freight transport volume, high-tech industrial output, and the number of applications for scientific and technological patents.

Guangdong's import and export account for one-third of the country's total.

Accumulative actually utilized foreign direct investment into the province amounted to US$162.9 billion by the end of last year.

Editor: Yan