Guangdong Party chief calls development tasks "arduous"

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) chief of south China's booming Guangdong Province said Wednesday that after 30 years of opening up, development work there remains arduous.

Although the Pearl River Delta region is quite developed, the per capita GDP of residents of east, west and north Guangdong Province lags behind the national average, said Hu Chunhua, secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPC.

It is a heavy task for Guangdong to lead other provinces in building a well-off society and basically realizing modernization, even as its GDP reached 5.7 trillion yuan (908 billion U.S. dollars) last year, Hu said during a panel discussion with lawmakers from the province at the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

Meanwhile, Hu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, expressed his confidence in Guangdong's development.

Guangdong has more than 30 years of development experience. Its bank deposits exceeded 10 trillion yuan in 2012, higher than any other province in China, Hu said.

The province's total foreign trade volume hit 980 billion yuan last year, accounting for a quarter of China's total, he added.

He noted that Guangdong, which is adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, also has a geographical advantage in promoting foreign trade.