Delta region bears brunt of slowdown

GUANGZHOU: In a sign of the slowing global economy, more than 1,300 companies shut down, suspended business or moved their factories out of the Pearl River Delta in the first nine months of this year, a senior government official has said.

"About 627 firms in Dongguan and more than 700 in Shenzhen closed, suspended or moved their factories from January to September," Wu Jun, deputy director-general of the department of foreign trade and economic cooperation of Guangdong province, told China Daily over the weekend.

The number of affected businesses in the province is probably "much larger" since many other cities have not reported their figures, Wu said.