Guangdong bets on infrastructure amid slowing growth and US-China trade war
- Chinese export powerhouse tries to keep people in jobs to help stabilise economy
- Provincial officials say they will encourage more service platforms to boost employment
The southern Chinese province of Guangdong will keep pouring money into infrastructure and job creation this year to stabilise the economy as it battles strong economic headwinds, provincial officials said on Wednesday.
Chen Yiwei, director general of the Guangdong Department of Human Resources and Social Security, said the province was facing challenges from China’s slowing economic growth and external issues like the China-US trade war.
Officials at the conference said Guangdong, an export powerhouse, had set a relatively low growth target of 6 per cent for 2020. Last year, the province, one of the richest in the country, registered a modest 6.3 per cent growth, down half a percentage point from 2018.
Guangdong would increase spending virtually across the board, it would target the service sector for job creation in 2020, they said.