GDP

According to preliminary calculations, GDP in the province totaled some 130.1 billion yuan in 2003 (up 10.1 percent), the highest rate of growth seen in the province since 1997. Per capita GDP was 4,984 yuan (up 8.97 percent).

Value-added

In 2003, value-added within the primary industries was some 24.0 billion yuan (up 6.0 percent). Value-added in the secondary industries was 60.8 billion yuan (up 12.2 percent). Value-added in the tertiary industries was 45.3 billion yuan (up by 9.4 percent). This put the respective contributions at: primary 18.4 percent (unchanged from the previous year), secondary 46.7 percent (up from 45.7) and tertiary 34.9 percent (down from 35.9).

Industrial value-added

In 2003, total industrial value-added was some 45.0 billion yuan (up 12.9 percent). Of this, the value-added within state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises with an annual sales income over 5 million yuan came to 39.0 billion yuan (up 13.02 percent) and these enterprises returned profits of 3.1 billion yuan (up 47.44 percent). Meanwhile the output value of new industrial products was 3.6 billion yuan (up 4.21 percent).

Agricultural output

There were some 2.5 million hectares in grain in 2003. This was a decrease of 129,300 hectares (4.92 percent) on the previous year. However total annual grain output was 7.9 million tons (up 0.85 percent). The average output per mu (1 mu = 1/15 hectare) was the highest ever recorded at 210.54 kilograms.

Public revenues

In 2003, government revenues contributing to GDP were running at 17.6 billion yuan, an increase of 18.18 percent while the general planned annual revenue was 8.7 billion yuan, an increase of 15.67 percent.

Foreign trade

One after another, seventy-one of Gansu’s cities and counties had opened up to the outside world. By 2003, friendly inter-city relations were in place with 13 counterparts located in Japan, the United States, New Zealand, Turkmenistan, Australia, Kazakhstan, Hungary and Russia. Export trade has developed on the strength of the province’s textiles, chemicals, minerals and non-ferrous metals.

In 2003, the combined value of imports and exports was US$1.328 billion, an increase of 51.3 percent over the previous year. Exports had increased 59.9 percent in the year to US$0.878 billion, ranking Gansu with the third fastest growth among all of China’s provinces and autonomous regions. Meanwhile imports had grown 37 percent to US$0.450 billion.

Exports to the most significant destinations by value were: Korea at US$240 million (up 125 percent on the year before), Japan at US$182 million (up 94.7 percent), Hong Kong at US$89 million (up 90.8 percent), the United States at US$62 million (up 84.8 percent) and Russia at US$54 million (up 31.6 percent).

Foreign investment

Gansu has established ties with the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program and the European Economic Community. With loans and other forms of aid from these institutions, the province has developed various small-scale water conservation and hydro-electric schemes and has set up medical and educational projects. The year 2003 saw a decrease in the utilization of foreign capital. While total contractual commitments to foreign direct investment (FDI) reached some US$245 million (up 22 percent), the actual utilization of FDI was US$39 million (down 25.7 percent).

Pillar industries

The pillar industries of Gansu include non-ferrous metals, electricity generation, petrochemicals, oil exploration machinery and building materials.