GUANGDONG’S GDP breached the 5-trillion-yuan (US$735 billion) threshold in the first half of this year, marking a promising start for achieving its goal of 10 trillion yuan for the year.

Its GDP grew 6.5 percent year on year from January to June to 5.5 trillion yuan, data from the Statistics Bureau of Guangdong showed Sunday. The figure was 4.63 trillion yuan for the same period last year.

While the service industry continued to be the stabilizer of Guangdong’s economy, contributing 65.2 percent to the province’s GDP, advanced and high-tech manufacturing still played an important role in the province, which is known as a world-class manufacturing base.

The provincial average per capita personal income was 20,322 yuan in the past six months, the bureau said.

Guangdong Governor Ma Xingrui said in June that the province’s GDP is estimated to exceed 10 trillion yuan this year.

In 2018, Guangdong’s GDP  reached 9.7 trillion yuan, which was 599.8 times that in 1949 (2.03 billion yuan) and accounted for 10.8 percent of the national total.

Guangdong has been China’s largest region in terms of GDP for 30 consecutive years. In 2018, Guangdong and Jiangsu were the only two Chinese provinces with more than 9 trillion yuan of GDP.

Guangdong recorded 3.28 trillion yuan in foreign trade in the first six months of this year, up 1.3 percent year on year, the provincial customs said yesterday.

Private firms were the biggest driver. In the past six months, the foreign trade volume of private firms in Guangdong reached 1.66 trillion yuan, contributing 229 percent to the growth of Guangdong’s foreign trade.

Guangdong’s trade with EU and ASEAN countries reached 410.67 billion yuan and 439.95 billion yuan, respectively, counteracting the impact of the trade tensions between China and the United States. Guangdong’s trade with the United States slid 3 percent to stand at 378.44 billion yuan.

Its trade with Belt and Road (B&R) countries totaled 765.88 billion yuan, an increase of 5.1 percent. The provincial customs predicts that despite challenges, Guangdong’s sound economic fundamentals will remain unchanged in the second half of this year.

Meanwhile, Shenzhen’s exports reached 757.14 billion yuan in the first half of 2019, up 5.1 percent year on year, according to local customs.

The city’s trade volume with B&R countries reached 284.14 billion yuan during the period, up 5.7 percent year on year. Local private enterprises contributed 775.42 billion yuan worth of exports and imports, accounting for 58 percent of the city’s total.

Shenzhen saw robust growth in the import of fruit, medicine and seafood. Its import of meat products and medicine grew by 31.2 percent and 28.7 percent, respectively.(SD News)