Zhongshan is one of the local-level cities under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province. It has 24 towns and districts. The city is located in the central and southern part of the Pearl River Delta Region neighboring Guangzhou in the north and Hong Kong and Macau in the south. The total area is 1,800 square kilometers with an average annual temperature at about 22 degrees. Its population is 1.394 million. Zhongshan is the hometown of Sun Yat-sen, one of the greatest revolutionist in China’s history. It is also a famous hometown for a large number of overseas Chinese who have been immigrated into 87 different countries or Hong Kong, Macau.

 

Zhongshan is also one of the pioneering city that opened to reform and development in a very early time. In current years, the city strongly promoted its industrialization. It has built up a group of national famous industrial production bases, such as the National Health Scientific Technology and Production Base, the Telecommunication Industry Base and some of the scientific and technological parks. The high-tech industries gradually became the leading industries of this city with a group of excellent enterprises, such as the Lebaishi Soft Drink Company, the Jahua Electronic Production Corp. etc. the specialized industries in different towns also have been developing really fast. For instance, the lighting and decoration productions in Guzhen Town, the furniture production in Dayong, etc. there are 20 enterprises listed into the top 500 enterprises list around the world. In 2004, the total GDP created reached 6.1014 billion RMB, among which the GDP created by industries reached 200.44 billion RMB.

 

Zhongshan has very advanced environment to attract investment. Currently, the total length of road reached 1,077.2 kilometers. The road network connecting national roads and expressways within the Pearl River Delta Region has been gradually built up. There are five international airports within the 90 kilometer-radiate circle. The railway system is also very sufficiently developed. Since the opening of the Shenwan Harbor, the city now has Zhongshan Barbor in the east, the Shenwan Harbor in the west and Xiaolan Harbor in the north, which built up a small triangular structure of the harbor location. The Zhongshan Harbor was listed within the top 100 harbors globally. It takes only around 75 minutes to go to Hong Kong via the harbor. The water and electricity supply of this city also is very convenient and sufficient. There is also the telecommunication network built up for the city’s information exchange.

 

In recently years, the city was awarded as the “National Model City of Public Health and Sanitation”, the “National Model City on Urban Planning and Management”, the “National Garden City”, the “National Model Tourist City”, etc. In 1997, the city was also awarded by the UNESCO as the “International Model City for Human Habitat”.

 

In 2004, under the leadership of the municipal government and the correct direction of government policies and principles, the city set up the strategy of “Three Developments and Two Reinforcements” further promoting the city’s economy, science and technology, public health, sports, education and social welfare, etc to grow in the healthy direction.

 

The economy development in 2004 of Zhongshan had following major features:

1.       The economy kept growing at a stable rate.

According to preliminary calculation, the total GDP of the year reached 61.014 billion RMB with a growth by 18.7% compared to the previous year, which was also the fastest year since 1995 and was ranked the third in the whole province. The growth rate was even 0.1% faster than the same period the year before. The total added value created by primary industries reached 3.051 billion RMB with a growth by 1.8%. The total added value created by secondary industries reached 39.649 billion RMB with a distinct growth by 22.5%. The total added value created by tertiary industries reached 18.314 billion RMB with a growth by 13.8%. The industrial structure was 5.0: 65.0: 30.0. If calculated according to the registered population, the per capita average GDP reached 44,005 RMB, which equaled to 5,315 US dollars, with a growth by 17.3%.

 

2.       The private sectors experienced rapid growth.

The total added value created by private sectors reached 26.613 billion RMB with a growth by 20.0%, which was 1.3% higher in growth rate compared to the previous year and took up 43.6% of the total GDP. The added values by private sectors from primary, secondary and tertiary industries were 1.787 billion RMB, 16.649 billion RMB and 8.177 billion RMB respectively. The growth rates were by 2.3%, 23.8% and 16.9% respectively. Among all industries, the tertiary industries achieved the fastest growth by 4.2%. The industrial structure among private sectors was 6.7: 62.6: 30.7.

 

3.       The residents' consumption price level grew modestly

Compared to the year 2003, the annual residents’ consumption price was raised only by 3.1%. The price level of consumption goods was raised by 4.6%, while the price for services decreased by 1.4%. Seen from the eight major sectors of the residents’ consumption, the price level of foods, tobacco and alcohol and residential related consumption was raised by 12.1%, 5.5% and 4.0% respectively, while the price level of clothing, home appliance and maintenance, entertaining and education services, transportation and telecommunication, public health care and personal goods was decreased by 11.3%, 6.5%, 3.8%, 1.3% and 1.0% respectively.

 

4.       The social employment situation was stable.

At the end of the year, the total number of employees reached 1.8298 million. The total number of urban employees reached 178,200 persons. The total number of employees working in private sectors reached 817,200 persons, while the total number of employees working in rural areas reached 1.1562 million. The registered unemployment rate was 2.3%.

In 2004, the major problems and difficulties restricting the city’s social and economic development were as follows: the comprehensive competition advantage was still to be improved. The industrial structure was in need of further optimized. The imbalance among different districts became more and more distinct. The process of urbanization was still in need of time catching up the progress of industrialization.