GUANGZHOU: South China's Guangdong Province, the vanguard of China's electronics industry, hit a new height last year thanks to the provincial strategy to foster the sector into a pillar industry.
The industry of the province yielded a gross production output value of 188.60 billion yuan (US$22.72 billion) in 1999, soaring 49.79 per cent from one year ago, said sources from Guangdong Electronics and Machinery Industrial Department.
Sales volume of the sector was valued as 111.80 billion yuan (US$13.47 billion), growing 51.54 per cent.
"The section's rapid development of the sector made a great contribution to sustained development of the overall economy in Guangdong," said Luo Jiansheng, director-general of the provincial electronics and machinery industry department.
Most of the province's key electronic products sold like hot cakes, Luo said. He mentioned popular products such as cordless phones, fax machines, mini-computers, monitors, printers, colour displays and integrated circuits.
The director-general spoke highly of the achievements made by Shenzhen, Huizhou and Dongguan. All are prosperous cities in the Pearl River Delta.
Shenzhen contributed some 60 per cent to the gross production output value of the province's electronics industry. Together, Huizhou and Dongguan provided 26 per cent cumulatively.
The three cities have helped to make the Pearl River Delta region into one of China's most important bases for developing and manufacturing electronics and information products, he said.
Luo said the province's strategy to adjust product structures and optimize industrial structure well explains its rapid development.
The province highlighted the development and production of telecommunications equipment, computers, networks, digital audio and visual facilities as well as basic electronic components.
With the strategy carried out, Luo said, investment-oriented electronic products made up 41 per cent of the total production output value. Consumption-oriented products accounted for 35 per cent and basic electronic components 24 per cent. The production output value of investment-oriented electronic products swelled 68.83 per cent from one year ago.
The director-general said the province's efforts to increase science and technology input to foster new growth points were also responsible for the rapid growth of the sector.
(China Daily)
