Despite the global economic downturn, the province of Guangdong saw bullish development in its new and hi-tech industry sectors during the first three quarters of this year.

According to a report released by the provincial statistics bureau, Guangdong saw a rapid increase of patent applications and profits in its hi-tech manufacturing industry in the January-September period of this year.

The province submitted applications for a total of 22,162 patents in nine months, a growth of 9 percent over the comparable period in 2008.

An additional 55,861 patents that had been previously applied for were licensed in the same period, an increase of 21.9 percent from a year ago. In all, the invention patents licensed surged 65.8 percent from a year ago to reach 8,233, topping any other province.

Profit from the hi-tech manufacturing sector grew 13.1 percent over the same period in 2008 to 35.12 billion yuan, with the electronics and telecom equipment-manufacturing sector posting a growth of 32.4 percent and medicine manufacturing sector 27.5 percent respectively.
The profit growth of the hi-tech manufacturing industry during the three quarters was 7.6 percentage points higher than the average of the province’s manufacturing industry sector.

Imports and exports of new and hi-tech products, though still posting a negative growth, saw a slowdown of decline over the period.

Total imports and exports of hi-tech products were worth $173.67 billion, a decrease of 15.4 percent from a year ago, with exports falling 15.3 percent to $93.81 billion in the January-September period. Both rates were below the average decrease rates of the province.

Huang Huahua, Guangdong’s governor, said, "The achievements the province has made in independent innovation and the development of the new and hi-tech industry sector have played a major role in helping the province weather the global financial crisis."

Despite the fact that Guangdong relies very heavily on the foreign-oriented economy and has suffered a more negative impact from the global economic recession than many other regions in China, the province still realized a GDP growth of 7.1 percent in the first half of this year and 10.1 percent in 2008, according to Huang.

According to the governor, the comprehensive index of the province’s regional innovation capability ranked it second only to Shanghai in 2008. Its new and hi-tech industrial output has maintained the No 1 position nationwide consecutively for several years.

Statistics from the provincial science and technology department indicate that the province has secured 11 major scientific projects - about 10 percent of the nation’s total - in the past three quarters of this year. These were sourced from the National Basic Research Program, also known as the "973 program".

Approved by the Chinese government in June 1997 and organized and implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the program is the nation’s on-going national basic research program.

Based on existing research activities and deployments made by the National Nature Science Foundation and major dedicated pre-studies, the program organizes and implements basic research to meet the nation’s major strategic needs. 
                                                                                                  Source: China Daily