Guangdong, the southern coastal province, will be constructing hi-tech industrial development zones and has issued guidelines. According to the guidelines, the hi-tech industrial zones are expected to achieve an annual industrial output of $366 billion by the year 2012, an increase of over 25% compared to 2008.Overall hi-tech industrial output is expected to reach $300 billion by 2012, with R&D funding increasing to 4% of the total sales revenues.
Guangdong established its first hi-tech industrial development zone in 1991. Since then it has founded six State-level and 10 province-level zones across the province, primarily in the delta cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Huizhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing. Nansha Development Zone in southern Guangzhou is shown in our illustration.
China Daily reported the average GDP per sq km was $15,871 across the 16 zones in 2008, 23 times higher than the figure in the delta region and 54 times larger than the provincial average.