Guangdong's 14.4 percent GDP growth brings new challenges

Guangdong successfully defended its title as the national GDP champion in the first six months of the eleventh five-year plan period (2006-2010), with a 14.4 percent GDP growth. It was the fastest increase in recent years. Besides its rapid overall economic growth, Guangdong has made progress in several important aspects. Industrial structure was optimized, less-developed regions speeded up economic growth, the export-oriented economy was strengthened and energy efficiency was improved.

Output exceeds 1 trillion

According to Po Xinmin, Director of Provincial Statistics Bureau, Guang-dong's industrial sector produced 1.14 trillion RMB in the first half of year 2006, up 14.4 percent. The figure represents the fastest half-year growth in recent years. Po predicted that the province would have a 14 percent growth this year.

Meanwhile, the province's agricultural sector produced 48.06 billion RMB, up 3.9 percent. A bumper harvest saw the production of summer crops with a total output reaching 1.05 million kilograms, up 2.2 percent. In the first half of this year, the total output of meat and marine products were 1.90 and 2.79 million tons, with a year-on-year increase of 1.8 and 1.4 percentage points respectively.

The industrial sector grew by 16.8 percent to more than 602 billion RMB. Meanwhile, heavy and light industries both booked double-digit increases. Private enterprises and share-holding enterprises witnessed increases of 30.2 and 25.4 percentage points respectively. The tertiary industry yielded 491.5 billion RMB, up 12.6 percent year-on-year.

Less-developed regions continued strong growth as well. By June 2006, industrial value-added in the mount-ainous area as well as the east and western regions increased by 33.3 percent, 19.9 percent and 17 percent respectively. These growth spurts were 9.6 percent, 6.0 percent and 4.2 percent faster than last year respectively. Head of the class was Qingyuan, which exploded with an astonishing 89.2 percent growth. Heyuan, Shanwei and Zhaoqing locales all increased by more than 40 percent. As these regions continue to develop, the present economic gap between the Pearl River Delta region and other areas will close.

Large projects & exports drive the economy

In the first six months, the first ship of Australian LNG arrived in Shenzhen port (see P14), the first Toyota Camry vehicle rolled off the production line in Guangzhou, the de-sulfuring project of the 5th and 6th Units at the Huangpu Power Plant were completed. Also, the construction of Fedex's Asian Pacific hub was underway as well as the exp-ansion of an ethylene project with an annual output of 800,000 tons. Guang-dong officials also approved 66 other projects, including the Guangdong-Kuwait 15 million ton per year (300, 000 barrels per day) oil refining plant.

The export-oriented economy booked rapid growth during the first six months as Guangdong attracted USD 6.83 billion in foreign investments, up 21.4 percent. The total value of imports and exports exceeded 230 billion USD, up 24.5 percent year-on-year, or 1.1 percentage points higher than the national average. Of the total, the value of exports were 131.2 billion USD, up by 28.3 percent and the value of imports were USD 101.7 billion, up by 20 percent. The trade surplus was USD 29.5 billion.

The rise of electronic and it industries

One notable export trend is that Guangdong is now selling more high value-added and hi-tech products to overseas markets. The export of machinery and electronic products and hi-tech products in the first six months were 89.22 and 44.35 billion USD respectively or 68 percent and 33.8 percent of the province's total export.

Provincial Information Industry Department Director, Xu Zhibiao, in a recent interview, announced that the electronic and IT industries, one of Guangdong's nine pillar industries, saw its output value reach 1113.9 billion RMB last year, or 33.27 percent of the country's total. IT sales and exports accounted for 32.27 percent and 29.61 percent of the country's total. Guang-dong's electronic & IT industry was the undisputed national champion and its output was bigger than the sum of Jiangsu and Shanghai, the runner-up and second runner-up, which booked 646.7 billion RMB and 391.6 billion RMB respectively.

Improved energy efficiency

Guangdong, which was rated the count-ry's number one energy efficient prov-ince last year, made further progress in the first five months this year, as its standard coal and electricity output decreased by 2.5 percent and 2 percent respectively.  

Editor: Yan