The southern province of Guangdong, currently the richest province on the Chinese mainland in terms of GDP, is poised to overtake Taiwan by 2008.

"Guangdong's GDP is expected to top 2.6 trillion yuan (US$325 billion) this year, up 60 billion over last year, and will grow at least US$30 billion annually in the coming years," said vice governor Zhong Yangsheng at a recent meeting on financial reforms.

"This will soon cancel out the US$80 billion gap between Taiwan and Guangdong as the Taiwan economy is only growing by around US$10 billion a year," he said.

The south China industrial powerhouse posted economic growth of 14.1 percent in the first three quarters with GDP topping 1.8 trillion yuan (US$225 billion), according to figures released by the provincial statistical bureau.

Governor Huang Huahua predicted the growth momentum will continue into the fourth quarter.

He said Guangdong was expected to post 500 billion yuan (US$62.5 billion) in annual fiscal revenue and US$500 billion of foreign trade, 30 percent of China's total.

As China's economic engine, Guangdong outperformed Hong Kong and Singapore last year with 2.17 trillion yuan (US$264.844 billion) of GDP, 11.9 percent of China's total.

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2006)