(Yicai) Jan. 24 -- Guangdong, China’s most economically developed province, has set itself the goal of increasing the size of its gross domestic product by 5 percent this year.

Last year, Guangdong’s GDP rose 4.8 percent to CNY13.57 trillion (USD1.89 trillion), according to a government work report published yesterday. That ranked it top among China's 31 provincial-level regions for the 35th straight year. 

The province aims to grow fixed-asset investment by 4 percent in 2024, total retail sales of consumer goods by 6 percent, imports and exports by 1 percent, the value-added of industrial enterprises above a designated size by 5 percent, and its general public budget revenue by 3 percent, Governor Wang Weizhong said at the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress the same day.

With a significant private sector, Guangdong will continue to improve its business environment, lower business costs, deepen its opening-up, and support competitive industrial firms in developing overseas, Wang noted.

The province's retail sales of consumer goods jumped 5.8 percent to CNY4.7 trillion (USD655.2 billion) last year, industrial added value climbed 4.4 percent to CNY4 trillion, the value-added of industrial firms kept double-digit growth for the 36th month in a row, and general public budget revenue rose 4.3 percent to CNY1.4 trillion.

Affected by the contraction of the US and European markets due to interest rate hikes, Guangdong's imports and exports rose just 0.3 percent to CNY8.3 trillion (USD1.2 trillion), less than the expected 3 percent increase.

But imports and exports via cross-border e-commerce exceeded CNY800 billion (USD111.5 billion), accounting for more than one-third of China's total. Exports of electric vehicles skyrocketed 229 percent, that of lithium batteries rose 16 percent, and that of solar cells jumped 23 percent.

Guangdong's fixed asset investments grew 2.5 percent to CNY4.4 trillion last year, lower than the predicted 8 percent after being dragged lower by the decline in property development investment.

Editor: Martin Kadiev