In what he called a landmark step in development strategy, Shenzhen Mayor Li Hongzhong said the city would shift its focus from the pace of growth to its quality.
Mr Li said Shenzhen had reached the stage where it needed to achieve all-round social progress instead of blindly pursuing rapid economic growth, according to a report by the Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po yesterday.
Mr Li made the announcement at a meeting of the Communist Party's municipal committee, the city's top decision-making body, on Friday. The shift in development strategy is apparently an effort by Shenzhen to respond to calls by central leaders for the special economic zone to find a new role in economic development, analysts said.
National leaders recently making a trip to Shenzhen wanted the city to set an example in sustainable development for the rest of the country.
'We are determined to realise a historic shift from the focus on speed to a focus on quality,' Mr Li was quoted as saying.
He said the chief targets of the city's economic development for the coming year would not be about economic figures but more economic use of the city's natural resources - land, water and energy - and less pollution.
