Guangzhou reaches goal as first "developed" mainland city

Guangzhou could be the first Chinese mainland metropolis to reach the status of a developed city according to World Bank standards, officials in the southern boomtown said.

The city's per capita gross domestic product is believed to have exceeded US$10,000 last year, the first time any mainland city has met that threshold.

The capital of Guangdong, China's richest province, predicts its GDP hit 623.6 billion yuan in 2006. That represents a 14.4 percent increase over 2005, Zhang Guangning, mayor of the city of seven million people, wrote in a draft report on the work of the city government.

"The breakthrough in per capita GDP indicates that Guangzhou has become the Chinese mainland's first developed city by World Bank standards," said Peng Peng, a researcher with the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences.

Guangzhou's per capita GDP exceeded US$8,500 in 2005, with the proportion of income spent on food dropping to 38 percent.

The economic growth is mainly driven by the automobile, petrochemical, electronics and communications equipment industries.

The city is trying to hold economic growth below 12 percent this year as the national focus shifts from chasing GDP expansion at all costs to achieving balanced, sustainable development, Zhang said.

"By slowing growth, we aim to achieve a balance between economic development, environmental protection and the use of resources," said provincial governor Huang Huahua.