During the 2005 NPC and CPPCC annual session in March, Governor Huang Huahua of Guangdong province drew up a blueprint for Guangdong's development for the forthcoming 11th five-year plan period (2006-2010), saying that in the year 2010, the Pearl River Delta area will have achieved complete modernization. He added that the east and west parts of Guangdong will also have started a period of fast economic growth and the mountainous area in northern Guang-dong will speed up this development.

According to Guangdong's '11th five-year plan' working meeting held on April, the per capita GDP of Guangdong and its core area, the Pearl River Delta, are expected to exceed 3,500 and 7,000 USD respectively in 2010.

COORDINATED DEVELOPMENT

The 11th five-year plan is the first five-year plan formulated under the so-called 'concept of scientific development'. Governor Huang Huahua noted in his working report earlier this year that Guangdong's 11th five-year plan must be a plan that seeks a people-oriented, coordinated and sustainable approach to development and one that concentrates on improving social welfare and building a more harmonious society. A key task during this prescribed period is to accelerate the coordinated development within different regions, both between urban and rural areas, between domestic and foreign-oriented economies and between man and the environment.

A WELL-OFF SOCIETY
According to the 11th five-year plan working meeting, Guangdong will have built up a relatively well-off society by 2010 and the per capita GDP will have exceeded 3,500 USD. The Pearl River Delta area will take the lead of the whole province in realizing modernization, with a per capita GDP of over 7,000 USD.

Guangdong's performance during the next five years will be crucial to the completion of the province's long-term development plan formulated last year. By the year 2020, the whole province is expected to achieve a per capita GDP of 7,000 USD and the Pearl River Delta area's per capita GDP will increase by a large margin, reaching 18,000 USD.

2005: A CRUCIAL YEAR

The year 2005 is crucial to the plan to implement the so-called 'concept of scientific development', to further macro-economic control and to maintain good social and economic development. This is the year in which Guangdong shall complete all tasks under the 10th five-year and lay the foundations for a successful start to the'11th five-year plan'.

In 2005, there are three areas of top priority on the province's macro-economic control agenda: The first area is the maintenance of the current thriving FDI, consumption and exportation. The second area is the development of high-end and heavy industry, and the third area is the plan to optimize the industrial structure and to develop the financial market and promote direct financing.

A total of 148 key projects are being worked on in the province in 2005. The involving investment is said to be 565.7 billion yuan and the planned annual input is around 100 billion yuan. The realization of these projects will form a solid base for further development in Guangdong over the next five years.

The province will also formulate plans to develop and readjust the industrial structure of the nine provincial pillar industries, namely electronics and IT, machinery and household electric ap-pliances, petrochemicals, textiles and garments, food and beverages, building materials, paper manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and auto manufacturing. Special effort will be channeled into the hi-tech, heavy petrochemical, equipment manufacturing and modern service industries.

The province will continue to give priority to the development of the agricultural and rural economy, to st-imulate the industrialization of agriculture and to establish and perfect an agricultural product safety management system.

Another task is to further develop the opening-up of the province and give guidance and encouragement to local enterprises to enable them to explore the global market.
Also on the agenda are plans to enhance environmental protection and to accelerate the development of the region's recycling economy and ecologically friendly industries.
In terms of regional cooperation, Guangdong has handed in a 'Pan-Pearl River Delta' strategic plan to central government and is trying to get the PPRD regional cooperation project integrated into China's national '11th five-year plan'.
 
GD DEVELOPMENT IN 04

According to Chen Shanru, director of Guangdong's provincial development and planning commission, Guangdong completed the main economic goals set out in the '10th five-year plan' last year, one year ahead of schedule. GDP in 2004 exceeded 1,600 billion yuan. Economic development in the province had continued; tax revenue saw steady growth, the financial sector was healthy, the agricultural segment had become stronger, the rural economy saw new development, the province opened up further to the outside world and the foreign-oriented economy experienced rapid expansion.

STEADY ECONOMIC GROWTH

In 2004, Guangdong attracted foreign trade in the region of 355.1 billion USD, exportation of 195.1 billion USD and an actual usage of foreign investment of over 10 billion USD.

RURAL ECONOMY TOOK OFF

The seven cities of Guangdong's mountainous area had a 15 per cent increase in their industrial output, outdoing the provincial average of 14.2 per cent. Their fiscal revenue grew by 26.2 per cent, 10.1 percent higher than the provincial average.
 
FAST INDUSTRIES GROWTH

In 2004, Guangdong's effort yielded a 30 per cent increase in its hi-tech industry. And the province widely collected suggestions on development of its garment, building material and food industries. 

ENHANCING REGIONAL COOP-ERATION

In 2004, trade between Guangdong and Hong Kong hit 255 billion USD. And among the 10 billion USD FDI newly attracted by the province, 5.2 billion was from Hong Kong.

The Pan-Pearl River Delta regional cooperation programme, launched in June 2004, helped the province enhance its cooperation with other provinces in south and southwest China and with Hong Kong and Macao.

ACCELERATING INFRA-STRUCTURE CONSTRUCTION

In 2004, all 21 cities became integrated into a provincial expressway network. It is expected that by 2020, Guangdong will have over 2,100 kilometres of railway. In 2004, the newly added generators in the province had a capacity of 3 million kw. Construction also got underway for more generators with a capacity of 160 million kw. In the same year, 12 large electric grid construction projects were completed. These helped to ease the power bottleneck faced by the province.

Editor: Yan