China's Guangdong Selects ASEAN as First Step To Go Overseas

In order to fully implement China Central Government authority's major strategy to speed up economic development transformation process, the Guangdong Provincial Government has come out with a full deployment measure to speed out its economic development transformation plan. These measures have included the response to China's 'Go Overseas' policy. For Guangdong, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries have become Guangdong Provincial Government's first gateway to 'go overseas.'

Wang Yang, China Central Committee Political Bureau's Party Secretary for Guangdong, pointed out that ASEAN countries are China's neighboring countries. He said that in addition to the geographical proximity, the cultural characteristics of China and ASEAN countries are also quite close to one another. Although there are differences in one another's national systems, over the years, China and ASEAN nations have developed more understand with one another.

Wang Yang cited Singapore as an example. He said that among the ASEAN countries, Singapore was a knowledge and technology-intensive country, but China was still a labor-intensive country. Moreover, the political and economic systems of Singapore and China are also different. However, Malaysia is a moderately developing country. But Malaysia's electronic technology development is what China can use for reference.

Economic Development Implementation Plan
Wang Yang said that except Singapore, other ASEAN countries are developing countries. This is the reason why the Guangdong Provincial Government would want to choose ASEAN countries as its first step 'to go out to overseas.' By choosing ASEAN countries as its first gateway to go out, Wang Yang said this could mean that the overall cost of Guangdong government's economic development implementation plan would also be reduced.

Wang Yang said this on behalf of the Guangdong Provincial Government and as the representative of the Guangdong Provincial Communist Party of China (CPC) Party Committee when he received the World Chinese Media Group media delegation from Malaysia when the media group paid official visit to Guangdong Province.

Guangdong's Trade Volume With Malaysia on Increase
Wang Yang said he was happy to note of the continual increase of trade volume between Guangdong Province and Malaysia. He hoped that the trade volume between Guangdong and ASEAN countries, including Malaysia could further be strengthened.

Wang Yang said one of the major economic reform implementation strategies for Guangdong province to speed its economic development model is to increase domestic demand in order to change the old trade model that had to rely heavily on external trade demand.

He said that the Guangdong province has carried out reform and has opened up to foreign trade for 30 years. All along, the province has put strong emphasis to develop foreign trade demand. The result was that when global financial storm landed on Guangdong, the economy of the province could not avoid affecting by it. As such, the goal of the Guangdong Provincial Government would now be speeding up its domestic demand. Although such a change might take a long time to achieve, it was necessary.

Way To Carry Out Guangdong's Style Economic Development
Wang Yang said what Guangdong province should do was to develop the Guangdong style economic development model and not the Singapore style or the US style economic development model. He said the Guangdong Provincial Government is currently seeking a consensus, common understanding with the people so that both the provincial government and the people could walk the same path and that given time, the Guangdong style of economic development model could be achieved.

Referring to the coming Asian Games to be held in Guangdong province, Wang Yang said the Guangdong province would be the first province besides capital Beijing to hold such a large scale Asian Games international sport event. He said the ability of Guangdong to hold the Asian Games reflected the strength of the Guangdong Provincial Government. He said the basic infrastructure of the Guangdong Provincial Government was in no way inferior to Qatar, the host of the last Asian Games.

Wang Yang also emphasized that ever since the Guangdong province opened up for economic reform in the past 30 years, the province has focused so much on economic development it had ignored the cultural construction. As such, under the target to speed up its economic development goal, the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and the Guangdong Provincial Government would also further strengthen the cultural construction to ensure that the soft power and hard power infrastructure of the province could be combined and strengthened as one.

The following is the conversation with Wang Yang:

Question: Transformation of economic development is the top priority in China. This is also the general world trend. Since Guangdong Provincial Government is a pioneer and forerunner of China's economic development transformation policy, how does the Guangdong Provincial Government change the mindset and thinking of the government workers at all levels? Can all government officials discard the traditional economic development mindset and embrace the new economic development model without carrying with them the historical burden?

Answer: We used almost a year to come out with different stage of development to change the mindset of our government officials at different levels. After we had done that, we also carried out large scale work training programs including the introduction to government officials the understanding of modern financial industry and to allow them to grasp basic financial knowledge. Recently the Development Center of the Central Department of State had sent personnel to Guangdong providence to carry out site inspection. The conclusion of the site inspection was that all the Guangdong provincial officials from top to bottom level did understand our economic development transformation strategy.

Question: You attach great importance to the development of web media, and dialogue with users. You had also held dialogues with the web community. During these dialogues you had also encouraged the 'go out to overseas' economic strategy adopted by the Guangdong Provincial Government. Is it possible for the Guangdong Province Government to carry out the promotion of trade cooperation with overseas businesses through the media portal with friendly ties with China? This would allow the overseas businesses especially the overseas ethnic Chinese to understand the characteristics and special features of Guangdong province's development plan.

Answer: The Internet is without borders. On my part, personally I am willing to cooperate and exchange my view with the network media. As regards to carrying out publicity on the promotion of Guangdong's economic transformation plans I feel it is still not fit to do at this very moment.

Question: Whether it was to study flood control or environmental restoration projects, you have put special attention to gauge the opinions of the masses. You would also carry out public opinion surveys as and when needed. Through public forum, you also proposed the implementation of the 'Pearl River Delta Development Point Plan.' When you carried out this kind of public forums for the evaluation and implementation of polices, will you often encounter differences in opinions between the masses and the provincial government's position in these situations? How does the Guangdong Provincial Government manage to resolve this kind of confrontational opinions between the government officials and the general public?

Answer: The different views will make our decisions more perfect. The processes of major changes will inevitable goes through the cursing process from the masses. However as the masses curse, they also play a supervisory and monitoring role for the government. If the future society turns better, the masses will turn their curses into praises. Different voices will make us improve. This is the practical application of democracy.