Chinese provinces target over 6% GDP growth

Many provinces and provincial-level regions in China set the growth target of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2021 at more than six per cent, 21st Century Business Herald has reported.

According to the report on Tuesday, China’s economic powerhouses Guangdong province, Shanghai and Beijing targeted an economic growth of six plus per cent this year.

Central China’s Hunan and Henan provinces and north China’s Shanxi province set the 2021 economic growth targets at seven per cent to eight per cent.

Central China’s Hubei province, which was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, and south China’s Hainan that is building itself into a free trade port, will strive to notch up more than 10 per cent GDP growth this year.

“The more than six percent GDP growth targets set by local governments in China is more conservative than the forecast of about eight per cent GDP increase made by international organisations and the projection of eight to nine percent increase made by market institutions.

“Local governments’ GDP targets for this year is more pragmatic, as China’s economy is still facing external uncertainties such as the pandemic in 202.

“And it remains to be seen whether domestic consumption can return to normal track, some experts said in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald,” it said.

To stabilise growth in 2021, the starting year of the 14th Five Year Plan (2021-2025), Chinese local governments have unveiled measures to spur domestic demands and propel innovation.

For instance, Beijing proposed to promote the construction of an international consumption hub this year, aiming to take the lead in forming a consumption-driven economic development pattern.

Guangdong province vowed to speed up building an international science and technology innovation center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in order to boost innovation.

China’s GDP expanded 2.3 per cent year on year to 101.6 trillion yuan in 2020, with most of its provinces and provincial-level regions achieving positive growth.

For example, Guangdong recorded 2.3 per cent GDP growth last year to exceed 11 trillion yuan, maintaining its leading position among China’s provincial-level regions in terms of GDP volume.

Hainan registered 3.5 per cent GDP growth to over 553.2 billion yuan in 2020.