A report on South China's Guangdong Province's economic performance and social development has, for the first time, revealed that the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of the province has reached 28,077 yuan.

The report, jointly released by Guangdong Provincial Statistics Bureau and the Guangdong Investigation Team of the China National Statistics Bureau, shows per capita GDP reached 28,077 yuan ($3,599) in 2006, an increase of 12.9 percent year-on-year.

The report showed that investment in the development of real estate sector in the province hit 183.43 billion yuan ($23.52 billion) last year, up 22.4 percent. The revenue of commodity house reached 249.06 billion yuan ($31.93 billion) in 2006, representing an increase of 19.5 percent. It sold a total of 51.06 million square meters of commodity house, up 9 percent year-on-year.

The average price for commodity house after weighted calculation was 5,314 yuan ($681) per square meter, up 11.9 percent year-on-year. The price for commodity house is a new item in the report. It helps people to further and precisely understand the booming real estate market in recent years.

By the end of 2006, the province has approved a total of 128,200 foreign direct investment projects, with an accumulated contractual foreign investment of $289.54 and an actual utilization of foreign investment of $177.365 billion. The province has a total of 62,000 registered foreign-funded enterprises.

According to the report, enterprises from 114 countries and regions had invested in Guangdong last year. Top 10 leading investors in actual investment were from Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, Japan, Samoa, Singapore, Macao, Taiwan, the United States, Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

The report gives detailed information to meet people's growing demand for learning foreign trade of the province. It also shows that the province is more and more involved in the global economic competition and cooperation.

In addition, the report touches upon more items that are closely linked to people's life than before.

The report said that total water resources in the province were 219 billion cubic meters last year, bringing a per capita of 2,368 square meters.

The province consumed a total of 45.8 billion cubic meters of water last year, making an average of 495.2 cubic meters per person.

Last year, the average days of thick haze in the province were 75, 12 days more than the previous year.

The province built 99 sewage treatment plants with a daily treatment capacity of 7.25 million cubic meters. Concentrated urban sewage treatment rate was 47 percent. These figures indicate that the province has paid more attention to the issues of resources and environment protection.

Last year, a total of 100.39 million foreign travelers came to the country through the ports in Guangdong, up 4.8 percent. By the end of last year, the province has 93.04 million permanent residents, with a birth rate of 11.78 per thousand, a death rate of 4.49 per thousand and a natural growth rate of 7.29 per thousand.