Guangdong continues to shine as China's economic powerhouse

Guangdong province is promoting the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) with the strength of the entire province, a senior Party and government official said at a conference on Wednesday.

"We are making great efforts to boost and accelerate the innovation of science and technology to help build GBA into a world-class bay area to turn the grand blueprint into a beautiful reality," said Zhang Hu, a member of the Standing Committee of Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and executive vice-governor of the province.

Zhang made the remarks at a media conference in Beijing on Wednesday. Zhang, together with 67 other delegates, are now attending the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Beijing.

He said Guangdong will depend on itself for the development of high-level science and technology through self-reliance and self-improvement and accelerate the construction of a new innovation highland of scientific and technological development with global influence.

According to Zhang, Guangdong has made great achievements in economic construction via scientific and technological innovation in the previous 10 years.

The province, an economic powerhouse in China, has ranked first in terms of comprehensive capacity of regional innovation in China for five consecutive years, he said.

To this end, Guangdong invested more than 400.2 billion yuan ($56.37 billion) in scientific research and development last year, said Zhang.

The province now has registered more than 1.2 million scientific research and development personnel and obtained more than 440,000 invention patents in 2021.

"Guangdong's investment in scientific research and development, the number of personnel in scientific research and development, and the number of invention patents all came first from the mainland," he said.

"A pioneer of China's reform and opening-up, Guangdong is a vivid epitome of China's great change over the last 10 years," said Zhang.

"Over the past decade, Guangdong's economic and social development has leapt year after year, with gross domestic product soaring from 5.7 trillion yuan in 2012 to 12.4 trillion yuan last year," added Zhang.