General Economy

Gross domestic product (GDP)

GDP for 2005 was 194.2 billion yuan, up 11.5% from the previous year. The per capita GDP was 4,957 yuan (about US$614).

GDP ratio (primary, secondary and tertiary industries)

The primary industry yielded a value added of 35.918 billion yuan, 5.1% more than that of the previous year; the secondary industry, 82.283 billion yuan, a growth of 13.1%; the tertiary industry, 75.999 billion yuan, a growth of 13.3%. The GDP ratio of the three sectors was 18.5:42.4:39.1.

Revenue and expenditure

Provincial revenue was 36.628 billion yuan, an increase of 23.5% over the previous year. Provincial expenditure was 52.049 billion yuan, an increase of 24.4%.

Consumer price index (CPI)

CPI was up 1.0% from the previous year.

Investment in fixed assets

Fixed asset investment was valued at 101.463 billion yuan, up by 17.8% from the previous year.

Major Industries

Agriculture

In 2005, crop farming yielded an added value of 21.527 billion yuan, up 2.8% from the previous year. The total grain output increased by 0.2% to reach 11.52 million tons. The added value of forestry stood at 1.703 billion yuan, up 2.9% and that of animal husbandry stood at 12.1 billion yuan, up 9.7%.

Industry

The industrial added value totaled 71.186 billion yuan, an increase of 14.8%.

Construction

Its added value was 11.097 billion yuan.

Transportation

The freight carried by railway, highway and waterway amounted to 57.213 billion ton-kilometers, up by 3.9% from the previous year. Passengers carried by railway, highway and waterway numbered 30.567 billion person-kilometers, an increase of 11.5%.

Postal services

The annual turnover of postal operations totaled 688 million yuan, 12.4% up from the previous year.

Telecommunications services

The annual turnover of telecommunications services totaled 16.812 billion yuan, up by 34.4%. At the end of 2005, the number of fixed line subscribers reached 4.665 million, an increase of 20.4% from the previous year-end; and the number of mobile phone subscribers reached 5.094 million, an increase of 15.8% from the 2004 figure. The Internet users numbered 726,000 at the year-end, an increase of 33% from the previous year-end.

Retail

The annual turnover from retail sales reached 60.692 billion yuan, an increase of 13.4% from the previous year.

Tourism

Revenue from tourism totaled 25.114 billion yuan, up by 49.9% from the 2004 figure.

Continued Effects of Market Reform

Imports & exports

The annual value of imports and exports totaled US$1.404 billion, 7.3% down from the year before. Of this figure, US$545 million was from imports, down by 15.8%, and US$859 million was from exports, down by 0.9%.

Foreign investment

The foreign direct investment which was materialized during the year stood at US$107.68 million, up by 64.8%.

Social Undertakings

Science and technology

Three key laboratories were established in the province.

Education

The nine-year compulsory education system had covered 93.9% of the school age population by the end of 2005. About 1.86 million poor rural students of Grade 1-9 were exempted from tuitions and received free textbooks.

At the end of 2005, there were 34 institutions of higher learning which enrolled a total of 68,600 students during the year.

Culture

By the end of 2005, the province had a total of 26 arts performance organizations, 87 cultural and arts centers, 90 public libraries, and 10 museums. About 83.3% and 90.5% of the province's population respectively have access to radio and TV programs. Cable TV program subscribers numbered 2.78 million at the year-end.

Public health

The number of counties involved in piloting the reforming program of new rural cooperative medical services rose to 10, covering a rural population of 2.26 million. A special fund of 15 million yuan was allocated for the HIV/AIDs prevention and treatment. Construction of hospitals began in 395 townships.

Welfare and aid

Various welfare units across the province put up 10,046 homeless and vagrant people during the year. There were 4,707 urban community service facilities at the end of the year. The welfare lottery reaped sales of 397 million yuan in 2005, 65.4% up from the year before. Public donations totaled 21.16 million yuan, up by 73.2%.

Population, Employment, Social Security and Living Standards

Population

The birth rate in 2005 was 14.59‰, and the mortality rate was 7.21‰. The natural growth rate of the population stood at 7.38‰. At the end of the year, the total population stood at 39.311 million.

Employment

The employed population stood at 22.2 million, up by 1.6% from the previous year. About 71,300 laid-offs got re-employed during the year.

Registered unemployment rate

The registered unemployment rate at the end of the year was 4.27%.

Social security

At the end of 2005, insurance plans for endowment, unemployment, medical treatment and occupational injury had covered a population of 1.83 million, up 5.0%; 1.29 million, down 0.5%; 1.797 million, up 19%; and 635,900, up 100.7% respectively. About 4491,900 urban residents had received minimum living allowance from the government by the year-end.

Residents' income

The disposable income of urban residents was 8,147 yuan per capita, up by 10.6% from 2004. Rural residents' per capita net income was 1,877 yuan, up 5.2%.

Residents' consumption

Urban residents' per capita expenditure was 6,156 yuan, up by 11.4% from the previous year while that of rural residents was 1,552 yuan, up by 16.1%.

Geography and Natural Conditions

Elevation extremes

Tall in the east and low in the west, Guizhou lies over 1,000 meters above sea level.

Natural resources

Guizhou enjoys ample precipitation. Rivers flow through steep terrain, resulting in drastic fall of the waters which gives rise to a hydro-power generating resource of 18.74 million kw, putting the province at the sixth place in the country. The province is also rich in gas stored in coal reserves. The abundant water and coal reserves allow the province to draw up the strategy of developing water and coal energy at the same time.

As one of the great reserves of minerals, Guizhou boasts more than 110 kinds of minerals, out of which the amount of reserves of 76 kinds is already known. Guizhou is among the top ten sites in the nation in the reserve of 42 kinds of minerals and the top three in 22 kinds. The province is particularly strong in the reserves of coal, phosphorus, mercury, aluminum, manganese, antimony, gold, barite, raw materials for cement and bricks, as well as dolomite, sandstone and limestone.

With a reserve of 241.9 billion tons of coal, Guizhou has been known as "home of coal in south China". Its phosphorus reserve accounts to 44% of the national total while the mercury reserve, after long years of tapping, still makes up 38% of the total amount in the country. The newly discovered gold reserve of 150 tons offers the country another gold production base.

Over 3,800 species of wild animals inhabit Guizhou. Out of this figure, over 1,000 kinds are listed as rare species under state protection. More than 3,700 kinds of medicinal herbs, or 80% of the total number of medicinal herbs, are found in Guizhou.

The nature reserves in the province numbered 130, covering a total area of 961,000 hectares, accounting for 5.5% of the province's territory.

Tourism resources

Guizhou is a newly rising tourist destination. Unique natural scenery, rich ethnic traditions, splendid culture and history as well as pleasant climate draw tourists to the province. Now over 120 tourist sites have been opened including national scenic areas of the Huangguoshu Waterfalls, the Dragon Palace, the Golden Brocade Cave, the Red Maple Lake, the Maling River Valley and the Shizhang Cave on the Chishui River, four national nature reserves (the Fanjing Mountain Botanic Garden, the Maolan Karst Primeval Forest, the Chishui Primeval Forest and the bird reserve at Caohai), eight national cultural relic sites and many villages with distinctive ethnic minority customs and ways of life.