South China's Guangdong Province, one of the nation's economic powerhouses, has been urged to put more effort into increasing the per capita income of rural and urban residents.

Last year, the urban per capita income of Guangdong was 16,016 yuan (US$2,053), an increase of 8.4 percent compared with the previous year, according to the Guangdong Provincial Statistics Bureau.

However, Guangdong's rate of increase was lower than the nation's average, which stood at 12.1 percent last year.

The rate was also lower than that of Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang, three other economic powerhouses in East China, which hit 14.3 percent, 13.5 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively, according to a recent study by the Guangdong Provincial Situation Research and Survey Center.

The study also showed the rate of increase of Guangdong's per capita income in rural areas, 5,080 yuan (US$651) last year, was only 8.3 percent.

It was lower than that of the three eastern provinces, and the nation's average of 10.2 percent.

"It is now a crucial time for the southern province to attach more importance to increasing rural and urban residents' income," Zhang Changsheng, a leading researcher with the center, told China Daily yesterday.

The researcher attributed Guangdong's lower per capita income to the provincial government's "relatively unbalanced" strategy in economic development in recent years.

According to the study, Guangdong's GDP last year was higher than the other three provinces, more than 2,596 billion yuan (US$332.8 billion).

In addition, the southern province's export and import volume totalled US$527.2 billion last year, which was also the highest among the four economic powerhouses.

"According to the government's economic and social development planning, Guangdong in recent years has given too much importance to industrial development, but has not outlined its strategy on how to improve the income of rural and urban residents," Zhang said.

(China Daily March 13, 2007)