(Yicai) Dec. 9 -- Guangdong, China’s largest province by gross domestic product, is seeking to double its economic output by 2035 and lift its per capita GDP to the level of a moderately developed country, according to the provincial party leadership.

Starting from 2022, Guangdong plans to basically achieve socialist modernization within 13 years, significantly boosting its economic, technological and overall strengths, according to the Proposal of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of Guangdong Province released yesterday.

Guangdong’s economic output topped CNY13 trillion (USD1.8 trillion) for the first time in 2022 and exceeded CNY14 trillion last year. To double the 2022 figure by 2035, the province needs to maintain an annual growth rate of about 5.5 percent.

Balanced development is crucial to hitting this target, said Lin Jiang, professor of economics at Sun Yat-sen University’s Lingnan College. Nine cities in the Pearl River Delta region contribute more than 80 percent of Guangdong’s GDP, while other parts of the province lag significantly behind. This imbalance must be addressed, he added.

Guangdong will encourage industries in the Pearl River Delta region to shift to surrounding areas, the report said. This includes speeding up the construction of the Shenzhen-Shanwei and the Guangzhou-Qingyuan special cooperation zones, as well as accelerating the development of port economic zones in Shantou and Zhanjiang, to promote integrated growth across the province.

Guangdong will also leverage its strengths as a manufacturing powerhouse by upgrading traditional industries, and expanding both emerging and future-oriented sectors, the report said.

Guangdong will focus on building an “artificial intelligence + robotics” industrial cluster that integrates software and hardware, the report added. The province will accelerate the development of strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy, as well as lay the groundwork for future industries including quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen energy, brain-computer interfaces, and sixth-generation mobile communication.

These measures will help Guangdong climb higher in the global industrial and value chains, and reduce its reliance on traditional industries and low-end manufacturing, Lin said.

As the economy gets larger, maintaining the same growth rate each year becomes increasingly difficult. So Guangdong should further deepen institutional reforms and create a business-friendly environment to boost the private economy and unlock the potential of economic growth during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, which runs from 2026 to 2030, Lin said.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor