Shenzhen's 2017 GDP to top $340b

Shenzhen's gross domestic product is expected to grow 8.8 percent year-on-year to exceed 2.2 trillion yuan ($340 billion) in 2017, said mayor Chen Rugui in a government work report delivered Wednesday to the local people's congress as reported by China News Services.

This means the southern Chinese city will overtake Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, in GDP once again. Guangzhou reported a 2.15 trillion yuan GDP for 2017.

The city surpassed Guangzhou in 2016 for the first time as its revised GDP, which factored in previously uncalculated expenditures on research and development, topped 2 trillion yuan, ranking third among all cities nationwide.

Continuous input in R&D is one of the major highlights of Shenzhen's economic growth, said Cao Zhongxiong, executive director of the New Economy Research Center of the China Development Institute.

The city is home to Fortune Global 500 companies such as Tencent Holdings Limited and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. It is also a hub of innovation that is gaining increasing global influence. At the just concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 held in Las Vegas, more than 600 companies from Shenzhen participated, accounting for nearly a half of the Chinese exhibitors.

Statistics show the average profits of enterprises above designated scale in Shenzhen soared 22.7 percent year-on-year, while the per capita disposable income of local residents rose 8.8 percent.