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GD to further open service trade
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GUANGDONG Province will further open its service sector to overseas investors this year, said Governor Lu Ruihua.
While delivering a government work report at the ongoing fourth session of the ninth Guangdong Provincial People's Congress on Sunday, Lu said his province would welcome and encourage more overseas investors to make investments in the province's commerce, tourism, construction and transportation services.
“Overseas investors will be encouraged to participate in the reshuffle of small and medium-sized State-owned enterprises of Guangdong via such forms as stake purchases, co-operation and takeover," said Lu, who also urged the province to increase economic, technological co-operation and exchanges with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
In addition, investment from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and from the United States, France, Japan and Singapore has been rising drastically over the past years.
According to Lu, the province had an aggregate inflow of US$59.8 billion of overseas investment in the Ninth Five-Year-Plan period (1996-2000). In 2000 alone, US$12.24 billion of overseas funds flowed into this southern Chinese province.
Guangdong is now home to some 80,000 overseas-financed businesses.
While informing local lawmakers of the province's economic projections for the year 2001, Lu said the province is expecting a nine per cent economic growth rate for this year. He also vowed to have an eight per cent increase in fixed assets investment, a 12 per cent rise in retail sales and a nine per cent growth in exports.
He told the lawmakers that priority of this year's economic development will be given to industrial restructuring. In developing agriculture, emphasis will be placed on increasing farmers' incomes, raising the quality of agricultural products and improving the efficiency of the rural economy.
To foster a number of advantageous industries and commodities based on high technology, the province will rev up the development of high-tech industries and pillar industries, and accelerate the transformation of traditional industries with high and new technologies, as well as other advanced and practical techniques, said Lu.
Guangdong, the country's forerunner of the reform and opening-up drive, scored a gross domestic product of 950.6 billion yuan (US$114.5 billion) and an export volume of US$91.92 billion in 2000.
In the past year, per capita disposable income for urban residents in the province was 9,761 yuan, and per capita net income of farmers was 3,654 yuan.(SD-Xinhua)
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