CHINESE MAYOR GOES FOR GROWTH AMID GRIM DATA

tauringhuang.

Dongguan, the south China city whose factories alone outpace those of Vietnam in exports, has recorded a 10 per cent decline in employment since the onset of the global economic downturn, its mayor said yesterday.

The city, about 90km north of Hong Kong, was hit by a fall in exports of 24 per cent over the first six months of 2009 compared with the previous year's first half as consumers cut their spending. As a result, gross domestic product grew 0.6 per cent in the first half, compared with the national figure of 7.1 per cent and a 30-year average in Dongguan of 18 per cent.

“Manufacturing is Dongguan's pillar industry,” Li Yuquan said. “The global financial crisis has had a strong impact on Dongguan.” Mr Li said registered employment had fallen to 5.7m, an implied loss of 630,000 jobs.

被过滤广告In January, the government estimated that 20m of the country's 130m migrant workers had lost their jobs. Most of Dongguan's 10m residents are migrants.

In spite of the grim data, the mayor was confident that Dongguan could reach its official annual GDP growth target of 10 per cent. “We are under great pressure to meet our GDP goal because Dongguan is an export-oriented economy,” Mr Li said. “But we have every confidence we will achieve it.”

The Dongguan government, whose revenues are also under pressure, has allocated Rmb1bn ($146m,

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