Guangzhou's GDP was expected to reach 1.8 trillion yuan or 270 billion USD in 2015, catching it up with Singapore and Hong Kong. Its per capita GDP is expected to surpass 20,000 USD, which earns the city a place among high-income regions, said Guangzhou Mayor Chen Jianhua at a meeting on Jan. 8.

Thanks to the bolstering of service sector, both the GDP and per capita GDP in the city of south China 's Guangdong Province, reached new highs.

Guangzhou's tertiary industries witnessed a 9.3 percent growth in added value in the first three quarters, higher than the GDP increase. At present, tertiary industries take up 66.1 percent of the total economic output of the city, higher than that of other cities, including Shenzhen.

In terms of gross economy, Guangzhou is the third Chinese mainland first-tier city, following Shanghai and Beijing, to overtake Hong Kong; Beijing and Shanghai surpassed Hong Kong in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

In addition, Tianjin and Shenzhen also have set targets to surpass Hong Kong’s GDP, and are expected to achieve those goals in the near future.

Compared to Singapore and Hong Kong as independent economic entities, Guangzhou is the core city of the Pearl River Delta, meaning it can rely on the city cluster of surrounding cities in economic development. Thus, Guangzhou will see more stable sustainable development, said Zhou Fangyin, a fellow at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

Guangzhou has set a GDP target of 2.8 trillion yuan or 425 billion USD for 2020, with an annual growth of over 7.5 percent; the per capita GDP should amount to around 180,000 yuan or 27,000 USD.

Experts said, to achieve these goals, Guangzhou needs to seek new growth engines. On the one hand it promotes the development of the high-end service sector, and on the other hand it should accelerate the construction of transport infrastructure and urban renewal.