BEIJING: Guangzhou, the booming capital of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, is set to become the first ‘developed’ city in the communist nation under norms of the World Bank, the state media reported on Thursday.

The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Guangzhou is expected to exceed $10,000 in 2006, local officials said.

With seven million registered residents, Guangzhou, capital of China’s richest province, will see GDP reach $80 billion in 2006, 14.4% higher than 2005, city mayor Zhang Guangning said.

“The breakthrough in GDP per capita indicates that Guangzhou has become China’s first developed city by World Bank standards,” a researcher with the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, Peng Peng said.

Guangzhou’s per capita GDP exceeded $8,500 in 2005, with the Engel coefficient, which measures the proportion of income that is spent on food, down to 38%.