Guangdong Province, South China, contributed as much as 11.9 percent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005, latest statistics show.

Information from the Guangdong Provincial Statistical Bureau said only 5.1 percent of China's GDP was contributed by the province in 1978, the year when the country started to embrace the reform and opening-up drive, but the proportion rose to 9.1 percent in 1992 and 10.8 percent in 2000.

Guangdong, which was chosen to pilot the country's reform and opening-up drive in the late 1970s, has benefited the most by the market-oriented campaign.

With unique geographic position of being the gateway to the outside world, Guangdong has grown into a global base for processing trade and one of China's leading foreign trade players.

Source: Xinhua