With the country as a whole setting out to heal its C019 ravaged economy after a difficult year, two of China’s economic powerhouses have set less ambitious targets for their economies in 2023 while still vowing to create jobs and support the private sector.
The provinces of Guangdong and Zhejiang – big manufacturing hubs where private firms are hallmarks of the local economies – both put their growth targets at “above 5%” for this year after missing last year’s goals due to China’s hardline zero-C-19 policy.
As export hubs and major engines powering China’s economy, their gross domestic product (GDP) growth targets could help shed light on this year’s national economic growth goal, which the central government will announce during the national legislative gatherings in March.
“The [Zhejiang] government will exhaust all measures to push for export growth and work with enterprises in expanding external markets and securing more orders,” provincial authorities said in their report on Thursday.
They projected that Zhejiang’s GDP, which accounts for about 7 per cent of the national economy, grew by 3 per cent last year – or half of the 6 per cent goal that it had set for last year.
And Guangdong, the country’s largest regional economy, which accounted for 10.9 per cent of the national economy in 2021, is expected to have grown by 2 per cent last year, missing its target of 5.5 per cent and marking its slowest growth rate since the pandemic began in 2020. That would put its 2022 GDP at 12.8 trillion yuan (US$1.89 trillion), equivalent to the GDPs of South Korea or Canada. “We plan to introduce a new batch of billion-dollar-level programmes to attract foreign investment,” Guangdong authorities vowed on Thursday, adding that the security and resiliency of industrial and supply chains will be enhanced. “We will unveil guidelines to promote private economic development. We will support micro, small and medium-sized companies. (www.scmp.com)
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