President praises city where China's "economic miracle" began

Sep 6, 2010, 7:58 GMT

Hong Kong - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday led celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the special economic zone in Shenzhen, where the nation's economic transformation began.

Hu praised the former fishing village on the border with Hong Kong, where former leader Deng Xiaoping first opened China to the world by allowing free enterprise.

Tens of billions of US dollars in investment have since flooded into Shenzhen, where thousands of factories produce goods for export around the world.

The backward village transformed into one of the world's fastest-growing cities, with a population conservatively estimated at 14 million.

Set in the heart of the manufacturing belt known as the 'workshop of the world,' Shenzhen symbolizes both China's past and its future as leaders try to make it more than just a source of cheap labor.

Hu said Shenzhen's role would be 'further strengthened to serve the nation's interests' with more economic reforms.

He said the city would be the venue for pilot projects and would be 'the frontier for scientific development,' a reference to attempts to draw more high-technology industry to the area.

The president paid tribute to the late Deng, the chief architect of the economic reforms that led to Shenzhen's emergence as a global manufacturing hub from the 1980s onward.

Hu expressed hope that Shenzhen would continue to support the prosperity of Hong Kong and Macau and promote 'peaceful development' across the Taiwan Strait.