In his government work report to the fourth plenary session of the province's ninth People's Congress, Lu said his province will introduce competition mechanisms to allow more investors to become shareholders in Guangdong's enterprises.

More foreign investors will be encouraged into partnerships in both the construction and management of the province's former monopoly sectors this year.

Meanwhile Guangdong will reform its electricity supply system to separate the network from the power plants.

All the power plants, including State-owned companies, overseas-funded firms and joint ventures, will be able to compete in supplying electricity to the provincial electricity grid.

Lu said the current water and gas supply systems will also be reformed this year.

The move aims to further improve the province's competition capacity and prepare itself for fierce market competition after China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) later this year.

Lu also vowed to remove regulatory obstacles that go against the rules of a market economy and the World Trade Organization this year.

He went on to pay special heed to expanding contact with overseas Chinese who can trace their roots back to Guangdong Province.

Overseas Chinese can play even a greater part in the province's economic development and the expansion of Sino-foreign cooperation and exchanges, Lu said.

Lu also pledged to open his province wider to the outside world this year.

In addition to allowing overseas investors to develop the province's tourism, architecture and service industries, foreign investment will be encouraged to help bail out Guangdong's State-owned enterprises in a variety of ways.

Moreover, Guangdong will expand its cooperation with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in new and high-tech fields, Lu said.

The governor also outlined the province's development targets this year.

Guangdong's economy is planned to grow 9 percent, and its social retail volume has been set to increase 12 percent.

The export volume will rise by 9 percent while the province's unemployment rate will be held at under 3 percent this year.

To achieve these goals, Guangdong will make developing new and high-tech industries a priority this year.

More investment will still be needed to further improve the province's infrastructure facilities this year.

"This year is important for Guangdong's economic growth, as we need to lay a good foundation for the province's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05)," Lu said.

During the coming five years, Guangdong's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to annually grow 9 percent while social fixed asset investment will climb 8 percent. The social retail volume will increase 12.5 percent annually. And the export volume growth rate is expected to be 8.5 percent.

Last year, Guangdong reached a GDP of 950.6 billion yuan (US$115 billion), up 10.5 percent over 1999.

And its export volume increased 18.3 percent to hit US$91.92 billion, with 19.2 percent coming from the export of new and high-tech products.

(China Daily 02/12/2001)