Guangdong governor Lu Ruihua has identified development of the province's poor hinterland as his most pressing priority as he seeks to build on Guangdong's two decades of rapid economic growth.
China's richest province had grown at an average 13.8 per cent a year since 1978 but the statistics mask a stark development gap between the Pearl River Delta and the poorer northern regions.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Mr Lu said: 'I envision that in 20 years the level of development in Guangdong will be on a par with middle-ranking developed countries . . . and in 50 years we will rank among the world's developed regions.'
He thought the current level of development in the Pearl River Delta to be comparable with that of the United States and Western Europe in the 1960s.
'But we still have a long way to go to improve the situation in the northern part of the province,' he said.
Mr Lu credited the role played by Hong Kong in the development of the Pearl River Delta and the province.