Authorities in Guangdong province will introduce measures to boost employment, trade and economic development this year to ward off the global financial crisis, officials said on Friday.

In a government report to the provincial people's congress, which opened on Friday, Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua said 200 key projects, double the number from last year, would be implemented this year to boost domestic consumption and local economic development.

"Under the global economic downturn, boosting domestic consumption through introducing the key projects is of great importance to the province's economy," said Li Miaojuan, director of the provincial development and reform commission.

Li said the key projects, with an investment of 303 billion yuan ($44.3 billion), will be implemented in infrastructure, modern industries and the environment.

"Improving employment is also important for the province to maintain the GDP target this year," said Liu Youjun, director of the Guangdong labor and social security department.

The province has set a goal of 8.5 percent GDP growth this year, a 1.6 percentage points decline from last year's growth.

Liu said provincial labor authorities would work with local enterprises to organize 10,000 free job fairs this year to help migrant workers.

"Each job fair will be required to have at least 500 migrant workers to sign contracts with enterprises," said Liu.

Guangdong will also advance industrial upgrades this year to help enterprises in the delta region, especially export-oriented manufacturers, to maintain trade growth, said Liang Yaowen, director of the Guangdong provincial committee of foreign trade and economic cooperation.

(China Daily February 14, 2009)