Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, has been adopting active measures to eliminate the negative impact caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on local economy, striving to keep losses at a minimum, said Mayor Zhang Guangning.

Guangzhou has been one of the worst hit areas by SARS, but thanks to strenuous efforts made in the past months, the province has successfully brought SARS under control and has recorded no new SARS cases for a consecutive half month.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which had issued an advisory against travel in Guangdong on April 2, lifted it on May 23.

The blow on the local economy, especially the service sector, has been severe, but looking at the overall situation, SARS has not and cannot halt the strong economic development momentum of this southern Chinese city, said Zhang.

In the first fourth months of the year, the city scored fast increases in gross domestic product (GDP), fixed assets investment, industrial production and exports, and saw improvement in economic benefits.

The provincial capital on Tuesday launched a range of activities to restore foreign investors' confidence in doing business in Guangzhou which has been one of the most popular cities among overseas investors.

In the first four months, the city approved 293 new projects involving foreign direct investment, up 49.5 percent from the same period last year, and the contracts signed involved US$743 million of overseas investment, up 5.2 percent.

The inflow of overseas investment into Guangzhou from January to April was US$529 million, up 13.8 percent, and by April had reached a total US$30.1 billion.

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2003)