South China's Guangdong saw negative foreign trade growth in 2014

Guangdong province, the longtime economic and export powerhouse of South China, expects foreign trade to grow by 3 percent in 2015, after it registered a negative year-on-year growth for 2014, according to a government work report on Monday.

The report, which cited the province's increasing efforts to transform its economic growth model, was delivered by Guangdong Governor Zhu Xiaodan at the annual local legislative session, which opened on Monday in Guangzhou, the capital city.

"We will increase investment and boost domestic consumption, and better readjust our economic structure, to maintain a healthy economic growth," said Zhu.

Guangdong's foreign trade declined 2.5 percent year-on-year to 6.61 trillion yuan ($1.05 trillion) in 2014, the first drop since 2010, according to the provincial customs authority.

The province accounted for 25 percent of China's total foreign trade, which grew 2.3 percent year-on-year to 26.43 trillion yuan last year, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Guangdong's trade, which saw the biggest year-on-year drop of 38.7 percent in March since 2013, ended a period of negative growth in June and started a rebound starting in the third quarter of last year.

Despite negative trade growth in 2014, Zhu said Guangdong's foreign trade structure was optimized, with general trade and service trade increasing steadily.

Guangdong's general trade, which reflects the exports of self-developed products, increased 12.7 percent year-on-year to $415.76 billion in 2014, accounting for 38.6 percent of the province's total trade, according to customs data.

"We also developed a number of foreign trade service companies, which played an increasing role in helping exporters ship goods overseas," Zhu said.

Guangdong's cross-border e-commerce trade grew fast last year, with online transactions accounting for nearly 70 percent of the country's total, according to the government work report.