Guangdong Special: Accelerated growth mooted for area's industrial zones

GUANGZHOU: Guangdong has announced plans to accelerate the construction of its hi-tech industrial development zones. The southern coastal province believes this will provide a significant boost for its strategic development, massively enhance its capacity to promote innovation and secure its future industrial competitiveness.

As part of this initiative, the province has issued guidelines aimed at fast-tracking the development of the zones. This ambitious proposal will see its 16 State-level and province-level economic zones catapulted to a world class standing within 10 years.

According to the guidelines, the hi-tech industrial zones are expected to achieve an annual industrial output of 2.5 trillion yuan by the year 2012, an increase of over 25 percent compared to 2008.