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| Brief Introduction of Guangdong
In the past 20 years, Guangdong has opened up to the world in all areas. Currently, we have established 3 special economic zones, 4 national economic and technology development zones, 6 bonded areas, 10 national and provincial hi-tech development zones and over 50 development zones. The total value of exports reached 91.92 billion US dollars in 2000. The total amount of foreign direct investment was 12.24 billion US dollars last year. Approximately 40% of the provincial GNP was from the international market; about 40% of the construction capital came from abroad. Now Guangdong has established trade relationships with nearly 190 countries all over the world. There have been over 70 countries that have invested in Guangdong , and over 250 of the Fortune Top 500 have set up their subsidiaries here. Guangdong is developing in the direction of an industrial and informational province, focusing on information, biology and new materials technologies. Furthermore, Guangdong will continue to improve investment environment and to open the market. In the new century, Guangdong will carry on the strategy of "strengthening the country by science, technology and education." and catch up with the world economy and new trends in technical development. Geography & Climate Guangdong lies in the southernmost part of the mainland of the People's Republic of China . The Province borders Hong Kong and Macao and covers a land area of 178000 square kilometers as well as an ocean area of 170000 square kilometers, with a coastal line as long as 3368.1 kilometers. Guangdong is a mountainous province, with more hills or tablelands in the north, and more plains in the south. The Pearl River Delta Plain and the Swatow Plain are the largest in the province.
Situated in the subtropical zone, Guangdong is rich in natural resources of sunshine, heat and water, with an annual average temperature of 19¡æ-23¡æ and the annual average rainfall of 1500-2000mm. The average solar radiation may reach 108-130 kilocalories annually from the north to the south. The Dongjiang River , the Beijiang River and the Xijiang River are parts of the Pearl River system, being the third longest in China . The water resources total 186 billion cubic meters. Mineral and Resources Guangdong is rich in mineral resources and ranks the first in terms of workable reserve of Kaolin, turf, vein quartz for metallurgic purpose, trachyte for cement, germanium and tellurium.
Guangdong is rich in mineral resources and ranks the first in terms of workable reserve of Kaolin, turf, vein quartz for metallurgic purpose.
The Province is endowed with over 6000 species of different plants, of which more than 30 are ancient species. Guangdong is famous for subtropical fruits of 200 varieties such as Litchi, pineapple, banana and oranges.
Guangdong is one of the most densely populated provinces in China . By end of 1998, the permanent residents registered 71.43 million. Birth rate was 16.51%, natural growth rate was 10.9%.During 1991-1998,the annual growth rate was 12.56%,1.37 times to the average standard which is 9.13% of the whole country. The population density is 400/km2, tripple to the average standard of the whole country. The Government plans, by the year 2000, to control the population as many as 73.71 million with an annual average birth rate of 17.87% or below and an annual natural growth rate of 12.02% or below.
53 national groups live in Guangdong , of which the Hanzu is the largest group of 69.18 million, accounting for 99.4% of the total population. The other groups, such as the Zhuangzu, the Yaozu, the Shezu, the Huizu and the Manzu, have a population of 420,000.
The Yue dialect, the Hakka dialect and the Min dialect are the most common languages in Guangdong . Guangdong is the native place of more than 20 million overseas Chinese living in over 100 countries and regions in the world.
The Han dialect is widely spoken in areas of Guangdong Province except the area inhabited by the minority nationalities.
Under the Provincial Government, there are 2 big cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen at the vice-governor's level, 19 cities at prefectural level, 33 cities at county level and 46 counties. Guangzhou City is the capital of Guangdong province, ranking the third largest city in China next to Beijing and Shanghai . Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou were the first three cities to become the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in China . Throughout the province, there are 6 economic development zones, 2 open cities along the coast, and 6 new hi-tech development districts at state level.
The following data is up to the end of 2000. ?The GDP of Guangdong in 2000 reached 950.6 billion RMB, an increase of 10.5% over last year, ranking first in China, ?The per capita GDP reached 12973 RMB, 8.9% increased compared with last year. ?The investments in fixed assets reached 320.6 billion RMB respectively, occupying 13.22% of the nation's. ?The total value of retail sales of consumer goods by sector and urban-rural area reached 407.2 billion RMB, occupying 11.92% of the nation's.
Infrastructure The province's tourist trade has been growing fast in the past few years, with cross-the-border visitors and home visitors increasing side by side. It has become one of the important service trades that promotes international interflow, cultural exchange and economic development. A large triangle tourist zone has taken shape, which combines natural scenic spots with cultural attractions and connects Guangdong with Hong Kong and Macao . In 1998 tourists through customs to visit Guangdong province were 51.57 million person-time, an increase of 13.5% over 1997. This figure was 78% of the country's total. The total revenue of tourist trade was 87.37 billion, accounting for 23% of the nation's. The gross foreign exchange revenue of the international tourists amounted to 2.94 billion US dollars, an increase of 5.1% over 1997. There are 447 tourist agencies in the province. Power Industry The total installed capacity in power industry has so far reached 2900.3 GW. The 1998 generated energy was 10025.6 GWh, ranking the first in China . Among all the power stations, the two 900MW generating units in the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, the four 300MW power units in the Guangzhou Pumped Storage Power Station and the 38800MW power unit in the Dongguan Humen Sajia Thermal Power Station are most famous in the country. The Guangzhou city is the centre of the Guangdong power network. There are some power stations with 200MW generating unit are under planning or construction, such as the Shantou Power Station, the Zhuhai Power Station, the Panyu Power Station and the Taishan Power Station.
Generating capacity and the total amount of power stand first of the list in China .
Telecommunications The program-controlled telephone service has been in operation throughout the province. In 1998, the newly installed telephones registered 13.93 million sets, the telephone users totaled 9.585 million by end of the year; of which 5.965 million were installed phone users, and 3.62 million were mobile phone users. As regards the telecommunication network, 9134 cable kilometers of long distance optical cable have been laid on, with a total length of 290,000 fiber core kilometers. The microwave communication line runs as long as 320,000 wave channel kilometers. And a wide band multimedia communication experimental network has been constructed, covering the Pearl River Delta areas of Guangdong . Telecommunication in Guangdong has been grown rapidly.
Transportation Civil Aviation The Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport ranks the second largest in terms of handling capacity, next to the Beijing Capital International Airport, with a number of international air routes to Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia and Hong Kong; as well as domestic scheduled flights to over 20 cities.
Railroad transport The major railroads are listed as follows: the Guangzhou - Beijing Railroad, the Guangzhou - Shanghai Railroad, the Beijing - Guangdong - Kowloon Railroad, the Guangzhou - Kowloon Railroad, the Guangzhou - Shenzhen Express Railroad, the Guangzhou ¨C Meizhou - Shantou Railroad, and the Guangzhou ¨C Maoming - Zhangjiang Railroad.
Highway transport In 1998, the newly built highways extended as long as 3356 kilometers, all the counties and cities of the province are well linked by a perfect network of first grade highroads and expressways. The traffic in Guangdong has been highly developed.
Waterway transport The sea harbor authorities manage 1068berlhs along the coast, with an annual handling capacity of 127.62 million tons; 1316 berths are owned by the river transport agencies, with traffic of 35.28 million tons yearly. The shipping companies operate 360 regular freight transport routes. The ocean shipping has 200 liners, with a total transport capacity of 3 million tons, navigating to 1100 ports in 130 countries and regions.
Banking & Insurance In Guangdong, a finance network has been set up which offers diversified services with well coordinated participation of all financial institutions, such as policy-related banks, commercial banks, credit co-operatives and non-bank financial institutions as well as foreign financial institutions, of which the central bank plays the leading role and state commercial banks serve as the backbone. By the end of 1997 there were 25,000 financial institutions and their branches and sub-branches with 230,000 employees. On the average one financial branch services 3,000 people, compared with 6,000 in Shanghai . This ratio is close to that in Hong Kong. At the end of 1998, the deposit balance totaled 1329.3 billion-yuan and credit balance 819.583 billion. The value of annual increase has been close to or reached around 25 billion-yuan in the past few years, raising its proportion to GDP to 8%. It has become the second largest industry in the tertiary industry.
Commerce & Physical distribution Commerce & Physical distribution have grown most rapidly among all industries in Guangdong . Guangdong 's consumer goods market, the biggest in China , has been steadily growing in the past ten years or so. In 1998 retail sales came to 3249 billion RMB, an increase of 14.7%. Taking into consideration the price factor, the increase was actually 13.5%. The absolute amount of the consumer goods retail sales has been on top nationally in the past 16 years. There has been fast growth of large department stores, super-markets and franchise stores. Franchise business will be the focus in the development of the consumer goods. At present, foreigners are allowed with some limits to invest in wholesale and retail joint ventures, but not in business of pure foreign capital. Industry The province has advantages in such industries as electric appliances, food stuff and drinks, textile and clothing, light industrial and chemical product for daily use, and building and decorative materials. It takes the leading position in the country. With the further development of the industry, the structure of the province's industry is gradually shifting to machines, electronics and heavy chemical industries. In 1998, the export value of industrial products was a little over one-third of the industry's gross output value. The manufactured industrial products export took over 90% of the total export. 150 enterprises' export created a value of foreign currency at 10 million US dollars each. Mechanical and electrical products, which are the major products of the export, have come to the first place in China 's export, of which electronics, telecommunication, computer parts and electric appliances of high grade were about 65%.
The government lays stress on the development of the three pillar industries such as electronic telecommunication equipment manufacturing,
There are 2087 large and medium enterprises in the province. Their output value amounts to 341.53 billion RMB, about 45.7% of the industry's total. 170 enterprises have won the product quality authentication internationally or nationally, taking 46.6% of the country's total. The government's "Ninth Five-year Plan" estimates that by the year of 2000 the industry's gross output value (calculated by 1990 price) will reach 1132 billion RMB, with an average annual increase of 15%. The export will be valued at 339 billion RMB with an average annual increase of 15.1%, of which mechanical, electric and electronic products take one-third. The government lays stress on the development of the three pillar industries such as electronic telecommunication equipment manufacturing, electric machinery and special equipment manufacturing, petrochemical industry, and remolds the three traditional pillar industries such as textile and clothing, foodstuff and drinks processing and building materials. The first for such development are 70 enterprises, of which 50 are group companies.
Agriculture Guangdong province is the country's biggest production base of fruits and sisal hemp. Its advantages lie in the fact that it is situated in the south subtropical zone and has many mountains and seas with rich natural resources, which provide very good conditions for production. It borders on Hong Kong and Macao and has been the supply base of fresh and live commodities to Hong Kong and Macao . The consuming level of the residents in towns and cities ranks first in China and therefore the market potential is great. Guangdong province is the biggest fruit production base. Its fruits enjoy the reputation of "sweet fruits of south China ".
The province has 2.666 million hectares of slope land (below 25 degrees), of which only 0.8665 million hectares have been utilized. It has 10.833 million hectares of land suitable for growing trees, of which 9.188 million has become woodland. It has a shallow sea and shoal area of 1.333 million hectares, of which only 0.133 million is utilized. Such being the case, the province has great potential in expanding tillable land and woodland and developing aquatic breeding industry. Guangdong 's processing capacity of agricultural products is relatively weak. The output value of agricultural processing industry and that of agriculture are in the ratio of 0.8: 1.
Guangdong province is the country's biggest production base of fruits and sisal hemp.
The government of the province plans to increase the gross output value of agriculture to 96.4 billion RMB in the year of 2000, with an average annual rise of 4.9%. In the plan it sets forth its objective of realizing the agriculture modernization by means of introducing new breeds and varieties, promoting large-scale production with new technology, developing with great efforts an export-oriented agriculture and encouraging foreign investment in "three great projects", namely: great yields, great quality and great profit, in agricultural processing industry and sales industry. At present, the province's agriculture has aroused great interest of foreign capital. By the end of 1997, foreign enterprises had come to 1527, with 489 export bases. The accumulated use of foreign capital amounted to over US$500 million and export was valued at over 12 billion US dollars.
The Guangdong Province implements the strategy of "strengthening the province by science and technology", and focuses on developing new hi-tech industries. In 1998, Guangdong got new achievements in science. The production value of hi-tech products reached RMB 148 billion. 13473 patent applications were granted. RMB 5.72 billion was used for scientific and technological research activities. In 1998, the bioengineering, photo-mechanotronics integration and new materials will be industrialized so as to accelerate economic growth. It is estimated that, by the year 2000, the expenses for R & D in the whole community will account for 1.5-2% of the GDP. And a series of preferential treatments for encouraging foreign investor to invest in new hi-tech projects have been promulgated.
The Guangdong Province implements the strategy of "strengthening the province by science and technology", and focuses on developing new hi-tech industries.
Education There are 43 universities in Guangdong province, of which the following are well known in the country: the Zhong Shan University, the South China Polytechnics University, the Zhong Shan Medical University, the Jinan University, the South China Agriculture University, as well as the Guangdong Foreign Studies University, the Guangdong Industry University, the Shenzhen University and the Shantou University; Besides, there are 201 polytechnic schools, 46 normal schools, 882 high schools, 483 professional schools, 24700 elementary schools as well as 8582 kindergartens in the province.
The province's tourist trade has been growing fast in the past few years, with cross-the-border visitors and home visitors increasing side by side. It has become one of the important service trades that promotes international interflow, cultural exchange and economic development. A large triangle tourist zone has taken shape, which combines natural scenic spots with cultural attractions and connects Guangdong with Hong Kong and Macao . In 1998 tourists through customs to visit Guangdong province were 51.57 million person-time, an increase of 13.5% over 1997. This figure was 78% of the country's total. The total revenue of tourist trade was 87.37 billion, accounting for 23% of the nation's. The gross foreign exchange revenue of the international tourists amounted to 2.94 billion US dollars, an increase of 5.1% over 1997. There are 447 tourist agencies in the province.
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