Guangdong leaders fear they will lose economic pole position to Jiangsu
Guangdong's new party boss departs from predecessor's dictum that quality, not quantity, matters when it comes to growth in GDP
A sense of urgency looms large among senior Guangdong leaders who are worried that the economic powerhouse may lose its top spot in terms of total economic output by as early as 2015, while the province's new party chief, Hu Chunhua said pressure on future growth was "beyond my expectation".
In a panel discussion on Friday afternoon, Hu told the provincial legislative congress that the gross domestic product of Jiangsu province was catching up quickly with Guangdong, according to a China News Service report.
Hu said that whichever province earned the No1 ranking for GDP growth would attract even more investment.
The comment came in stark contrast to Hu's predecessor, Wang Yang, who told local officials a year ago to focus more on industrial upgrades and social reform, while keeping a cool head about GDP.
Echoing Hu's remarks, the director of Guangdong's statistics bureau, Xing Xiaowei warned that Jiangsu, whose GDP expanded by 10.1 per cent in 2012, would overtake Guangdong in 2015 "if we do not accelerate our pace", the Guangdong party mouthpiece, Nanfang Daily, reported on Saturday.
Dr Peng Peng , a researcher at the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, said it was "only a matter of time" before Jiangsu overtook Guangdong, as the former was already doing better in terms of investment and the use of foreign funds.