If it succeeded Guangzhou would be one of the first batch of Chinese regions to achieve socialist modernization, Lin said.

To attain the goal, Guangzhou will focus its efforts on three main aspects - environmental protection, infrastructure and industry.

As far as the environment is concerned, the city intends processing all its household sewage by 2004, when four sewage treatment plants will be operational.

Plans are also being encouraged to renovate shanty houses in the old city areas and update suburban areas.

The building of a new airport and a port at Nansha is already underway, with the new airport expected to begin a trial run next year.

Guangzhou is also mulling an ambitious plan to expand its urban railway to 500 km. The city currently has an 18-km subway in service and several other subways under construction or on the agenda.

To realize sustainable economic growth, the city was seeking the concerted development of its traditional manufacturing sector, high-tech sector and modern services industry, Lin said.

The city's manufacturing sector produced added value of 66.312 billion yuan (US$8.01 billion) in the first eight months of 2002, up 12.8 percent on a year-on-year base.

According to an optimistic forecast, Guangzhou's industrial production might double in five years, he said.

The optimism was strongly buoyed by the fact that several big industrial projects would start production from the year 2003 onwards, Lin added.

The city's economic development zone had great potential to increase its industrial production by 20 billion yuan (US$2.41 billion), he said.

The Guangzhou Honda automobile plant is also expected to bring an additional 20 billion yuan in industrial added value to the city, if its plan to boost its annual capacity by 100,000 vehicles materializes.

(People's Daily November 25, 2002)