South China's Guangdong Province is being urged to increase
efforts to develop its production service industry - the businesses providing
services to the manufacturing sector - to further its overall economic
strength.
Citing a survey on local residents' evaluation of the
province's major service industries, Ding Li, a researcher with the Guangdong
Academy of Social Sciences, said yesterday that Guangdong has relied "too
heavily" on the consumer service industry.
According to the survey,
which was recently conducted by the Guangdong provincial economic and social
research center, local residents are relatively pleased with the province's
consumer service industry.
"The consumer service sector here, including
food service, entertainment and real estate, has seen fast and sound development
in the last two decades, contributing a lot to the province's GDP (gross
domestic product) growth," Ding said.
The service industry has played a
major role in the province's economic development, generating added value of
more than 1 trillion yuan ($128.2 billion) last year, which accounted for 43
percent of the GDP.
However, as Guangdong, a major manufacturing hub in
South China, still relies heavily on the manufacturing industry for economic
growth, production-demand services, such as logistics, information technology
and banking, should be strengthened, Ding said yesterday in an interview with
China Daily.
Compared with Zhejiang and Jiangsu, two economic powerhouses
in East China, Guangdong has lagged behind in developing its banking and
financing sectors, according to Ding.
Last year, the per capita added value of the banking industry in
Zhejiang reached about 1,377 yuan ($176.50), while the Guangdong figure was only
732 yuan ($93.80).
"Demand for production-driven services in Guangdong,
including banking, logistics and telecommunications, has moved to neighboring
Hong Kong," Ding said.
As a result, many small companies in the Pearl
River Delta region tend to seek financial and logistics services overseas, Ding
said.
"We must make further efforts to develop the production-demand
service industry, to help our local private enterprises expand," Ding
said.
Li Zibiao, director of the Guangdong provincial economic and social
research center, agreed.
"Enhanced production service development will
definitely serve as a strong engine for the province's overall economic growth,"
he said.
He explained: "Unlike Zhejiang, a province relying on
domestic-oriented enterprises for economic development, Guangdong has too many
overseas-invested businesses. That's why the banking business for enterprises
here has been slowed down."
(China Daily 07/19/2007 page 5)
Vocabulary:
per capita:人均的;每人的
Questions:
1. What is the production service industry?
2. How much
added value did the service industry contribute to the province last
year?
3. What industry does Guangdong still rely heavily on?
Answers:
1. Businesses providing services to the manufacturing
sector.
2. One trillion yuan.
3. The manufacturing
industry.
(英语点津 Linda 编辑)
About the broadcaster:
Matt Doran is an award-winning American newspaper journalist and an
undergraduate student at Albion College. He is currently a polisher for China
Daily Website and is on summer break from Beijing Foreign Studies University,
where he will resume his study of Chinese in the fall.