In 2025, six cities in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan and Zhongshan, will invest no less than 6.5 billion yuan in special assistance funds to jointly build a number of county-level characteristic industrial parks and economic centers in the less developed or underdeveloped areas.

That was announced in an action plan for county-level industrial assistance and collaboration released recently by Guangdong Province.

2025 is the target year for achieving initial results under the three-year "High-Quality Development Project for Guangdong Counties, Towns and Villages". The Action Plan covers all counties (county-level cities and districts) in the eastern, western and northern regions of Guangdong, as well as 12 counties (county-level cities) in the PRD, achieving full coverage of all county-level administrative regions except for the six PRD cities.

In terms of regional and organizational assistance, the six cities in the PRD will invest no less than 6.5 billion yuan in new special assistance funds, with each city contributing no less than 220 million yuan as municipal assistance funds and no less than 50 million yuan allocated for county-level assistance funds.

The fixed asset investment in the two municipal industrial transfer cooperation parks is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in total, with a value-added output from above-designated-size industries reaching over 40 billion yuan. It aims to assist the recipients in introducing more than 350 new projects and jointly build a number of high-quality county-level characteristic industrial parks and "reverse" economic centers.

In 2025, Guangdong will actively cultivate a number of county-level industries with distinctive advantages. It plans to organize more than 200 investment promotion and intelligent talent introduction activities in total, and arrange over 500 batches of enterprises and investment institutions to visit and connect with the recipients. Efforts will be made to raise or help secure various funds totaling over 30 billion yuan.

In recent years, the coordinated development between urban and rural areas in Guangdong has been continuously enhanced. The overall economic growth rate of the province's 57 counties (county-level cities) has outpaced that of the province, and the income ratio between urban and rural residents has narrowed to 2.31:1.

The six PRD cities have dispatched over 300 assistance cadres to take local posts, with cumulative assistance funds exceeding 11 billion yuan over the past two years. They have jointly built 12 municipal industrial transfer cooperation parks, set up over 110 "reverse" industrial parks and centers, and assisted the eastern, western and northern regions of Guangdong in introducing a number of major industrial projects.