GUANGDONG Communist Party Secretary Mr Xie Fei yesterday painted a rosy picture of Guangdong's economy and predicted the province would triple its wealth from its 1980s level by 1997.
Speaking at the opening of the Seventh Guangdong Communist Party Congress, Mr Xie said Guangdong's ''pragmatic approach in pushing for economic reform'' was the key to success.
''We are facing a golden opportunity for development,'' said Mr Xie at the beginning of his two-hour speech.
The secretary attributed Guangdong's past achievements to a clear vision on economic expansion instead of ideological debate - just the same as pointed out by patriarch Mr Deng Xiaoping in his much publicised south China speech last year.
He also defended Mr Deng's ''getting rich is glorious'' quasi-capitalist theory, saying it did not contradict the national goal of fighting poverty.
''Reducing the gap between rich and poor does not mean preventing some areas and some people from getting rich first,'' he said.
According to Mr Xie, Guangdong's average economic growth rate in the coming seven years would be 13.4 per cent - much higher than the national average of nine per cent.
