Service trade becomes vital factor

    The service trade has become a vital factor behind economic growth in Guangdong.

    Latest statistics from the Guangdong Provincial Statistical Bureau show in the past year, 36.9 percent of the rise in the gross domestic product (GDP) of the province, or 4.6 percentage points of the province's economic growth, was made by the service trade.

    The real estate sector alone completed 122.86 billion yuan (about 15.15 billion U.S. dollars) in added value in 2005, accounting for 12.8 percent of the total added value done by the entire service trade.

    Leading nation for number of brand-name commodities & high-tech commodity export    

    Guangdong ranked first in the country for export of hi-tech commodities last year.

    The province exported 83.58 billion U.S. dollars worth of hi-tech commodities in 2005, accounting for 35 percent of the province's total export or the national total hi-tech export.

    In the meantime, hi-tech manufacturing businesses of scale -- referring to a business with annual sales over 5 million yuan (about 616,523 U.S. dollars) -- in the province fulfilled 1.05 trillion yuan in output value last year, a rise of 24.7 percent from 2004.

    Guangdong also ranked first in the country in terms of the volume of brand-name commodities.

    165 kinds of commodities had won the titles of "brand-name product of China" by 2005, accounting for 17.8 percent of the national total.

    The province is now home to 17 state-level industrial bases with special features and 159 specialized industrial towns.