Guangdong has set its annual economic growth goal at about 8 percent for the next five years, which is slightly higher than the national average though lower than the goals in many other provinces. The purpose is to place even more emphasis on transforming economic development plan, said the provincial Governor Huang Huahua, in a recent interview.
Although the GDP of Guangdong tops in the nationwide in 2010, Huang said the current economic growth plan is unsustainable. "Guangdong faces remarkable constraints from both the environment and its supply of resources, and has a serious need to save energy and cut emissions," Huang said.
Huang said innovation proves to be a driving force to accelerate the transformation of economic growth mode during the 11th Five-Year Plan, ,during the next five years, Guangdong aims to be the leading province in innovation by spurring domestic demand and hastening a transformation of its foreign trade and investment sectors.
Guangdong ranked second of all Chinese provinces in innovation in the past three years. Huang said the service sector should account for 48 percent of the province's GDP by 2015, while high-tech industries should contribute 26 percent of the value added to locally made products.
Authorities will continue to give encouragement to businesses engaged in the processing trade, and will increase their efforts to attract foreign investment, particularly looking to large foreign economies and international business giants.
As for province's green development, Guangdong authorities plan to have 75 percent of the sewage collected in provincial cities and towns brought to central plants for treatment and hope to ensure that more than 95 percent of the days in a year in all the prefecture-level cities meet specific air-quality standards. Both tasks are to be completed by 2015.
To that end, authorities will continue their work to save energy and cut emissions. Guangdong has eliminated 12,750,000 tonnes inefficient steels and a cement capability of 57, 820,000 tonnes in the past five years. The amount of nuclear-generation capacity it both has and has under construction also ranks first in China.
The income discrepancy between urban and rural residents has been narrowed in Guangdong in the past five years. But authorities hope to narrow the divide even further and expect an 8-percent growth in both urban and rural annual incomes in the next five years.
