South China province of Guangdong held a grand ceremony on Monday to mark the 30th anniversary of the opening of a tune-setting conference for China's opening up policy.

Dubbed as the experimental field of China's reform and opening-up policy, Guangdong has sustained an average annual growth rate of 13.8 percent over the past 30 years, said Wang Yang, secretary of Guangdong provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the ceremony.

With an economic scale surpassing 3 trillion yuan (438 billion U.S. dollars), Guangdong is China's largest provincial economy.

Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping announced the Party's historic decision on an overall opening-up and reform in China at the third plenary session of the 11th CPC central committee on Dec. 18, 1978.

Among the first group of four special economic zones (SEZs) sanctioned by Deng at the conference, three were in Guangdong. They are Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou, which have piloted China's opening-up reforms.

Wang reminded people in Guangdong at the anniversary celebration that reform and innovation are still the driving force of the province's future development.

Over 3,200 representatives from all walks of life attended the anniversary ceremony.

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2008)