(Yicai Global) Jan. 31 -- Southern China’s Guangdong province recently held its first meeting after the Spring Festival, and Huang Kunming, secretary of the provincial Communist Party of China committee, said that continued deep cultivation will surely create a better Guangdong.

This was the largest conference held in Guangdong in recent years, with as many as 1,000 people and 500 enterprises participating on-site, and 25,000 people from subordinate cities, counties, and districts joining online.

Lin Jiang, an economics professor at Sun Yat-sen University and deputy director of the Hong Kong-Macao-Pearl River Delta Research Center, told Yicai Global that the meeting offered a positive sign for Guangdong to gain orders and projects and show its development potential, which will be important for the post-pandemic recovery.

Guangdong’s gross domestic product is estimated to have been CNY12.9 trillion (USD1.91 trillion) in 2022, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier, ranking first in the country for the 34th consecutive year. This year, the province’s GDP is expected to grow by more than 5 percent.

Vanguard Cities

Guangzhou and Shenzhen play a leading role in Guangdong's high-quality development and they are the core engines of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Guangzhou will ensure total GDP of over CNY3 trillion this year, an increase of more than 6 percent on last year Lin Keqing, secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, said at the conference, adding that it is necessary to strengthen the development of Nansha and to invest more than CNY200 billion (USD30 billion) in urban renovation.

Meng Fanli, secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, said that improving confidence and stabilizing growth are the top priorities for the year. He revealed that in the first half of January, there was a significant rise in the amount of value-added tax invoices, bank deposits and loans, as well as airport cargo and mail throughput. Shenzhen’s 2022 GDP is estimated at about CNY3.24 trillion, climbing 3.3 percent from 2021.

Neighboring Foshan has set a target of 6 percent GDP growth for 2023, while Dongguan aims to complete annual industrial investment of CNY120 billion.

High-Quality Manufacturer

As a major manufacturing province, Guangdong is also working on the high-quality development of its manufacturing industry. Tu Gaokun, secretary and director of the Guangdong Department of Industry and Information Technology, said the total manufacturing value of the province in 2022 is estimated to have exceeded CNY16 trillion (USD2.4 trillion), with more than 700,000 manufacturing enterprises.

At the conference, many firms said that they would boost investment in Guangdong. Xu Min, global executive president, chairman, and chief executive of Procter & Gamble China, said P&G will move its international trade supply chain control center from Europe to Guangdong. It will be responsible for import and export business management services in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and countries included in the Belt and Road Initiative and other markets, with the Greater Bay Area as the core to further cover the Eurasian market.

Wang Mingxiang, chairman of the chemicals company Oriental Energy Maoming, also disclosed at the meeting that Maoming will be the company’s most important production base in the future. At present, the management team is in the process of moving to Maoming, and the headquarters has also moved there.

Editor: Tom Litting