Economic efficiency of south China's boomtown Shenzhen in Guangdong Province improved in 2006 with the amount of resources consumed to produce goods and services falling, a government report said Wednesday.

Last year's Efficient Shenzhen comprehensive indice hit 114.08 percent, 6 percentage points higher than 2005, according to the first official report on the subject.

Efficient Shenzhen indices measure four categories of activity: economic efficiency, environmental protection, social harmony and education.

The report said each square kilometer of land generated 298 million yuan (US$39 million) of GDP in Shenzhen in 2006, 44 million yuan more than in 2005 while productivity hit 95,010 yuan per person, 8,032 yuan more than in 2005.

The energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan worth of GDP continued to drop, the report said, but did not give the exact figure.

The city's registered unemployment rate continued to drop for the fourth consecutive year in 2006, down to 2.31 percent, 0.06 percentage points lower than in the previous year.

But the report also pointed out a worrying increase in air pollution index for the past year. Shenzhen recorded an air pollution index at 1.80 last year, 0.32 percentage points higher than 2005. The main air pollutants were nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. Deng Ping, head of the city's statistics bureau, blamed the rise on the rapid increase in the number of private cars.

Each Shenzhen resident received 10.27 years of education on average as of last year, the report revealed. Per capita disposable income rose 5 percent to 22,567 yuan. The per capita GDP hit a new record at 69,450 yuan last year, up 13.4 percent over 2005.

In a historic shift of policy, the city in 2005 set the goal of building an Efficient Shenzhen to create a sustainable, livable city.

(Shenzhen Daily July 13, 2007)