Dongguan's mayor insists 'world's factory' will hit its 8 percent growth target

The mayor of Dongguan, Yuan Baocheng, has denied rumors of large-scale factory closures in the Guangdong province city, insisting it will hit its annual gross domestic target of 8 to 8.5 percent this year.

The Pearl River Delta manufacturing hub built its name as "the world's factory" on the labor-intensive processing trade and attracting huge overseas investment .

Reports have suggested, however, that at least 4,000 factories in the city went out of business or moved to other cities or countries with lower labor costs in 2015.