With all mainland provinces now concentrating on economic development, the situation is like "10,000 horses galloping in a race," he said.

Guangdong still leads the others, but if the province fails to maintain its competitiveness, it could just well lose.

This is important because Guangdong forms Hong Kong's hinterland. Given the fast development of other regions, Zhang said, Hong Kong could be a nonentity in two decades or so if the SAR doesn't concentrate all of its efforts on developing its economy.

Zhang is also one of China's 20-odd Politburo members.

His comments on Hong Kong may reflect the central government view. But in his capacity as Guangdong's leader, he is also enunciating a worry that a sluggish Hong Kong economy would hamper Guangdong in competing with other mainland regions.

That is because economically, Guangdong and Hong Kong are now so integrated that their relationship is like lips to teeth in the Chinese saying that "if the lips are gone, the teeth will become chilled."

Zhang's concern with Guangdong's sustained development is not unfounded. In terms of gross domestic product, Guangdong continued to lead mainland provinces last year with a total of 1.6 trillion yuan (HK$1.54 trillion).

It was followed by Jiangsu province in the Yangtze River Delta with 1.55 trillion yuan and northern Shadong province with 1.549 trillion yuan.

However, in terms of year-on-year growth, Guangdong lagged the other two with 14.2 percent, compared with Shandong's 15.5 percent and Jiangsu's 14.9 percent.

And, in the first half of this year, Shadong's GDP grew 15.4 percent while Guangdong's GDP growth rate slipped to 12.6 percent. At that pace, Shandong next year will become China's biggest GDP.

Guangdong's leaders are even more concerned that the Pearl River Delta, the powerhouse of Guangdong's economy, is losing its competitiveness in the face of the rise of the Yangtze River Delta. The latest statistics appear to sustain such concerns.

Each year from 2000, the National Bureau of Statistics publishes a list of China's top 100 counties and county- level cities in terms of their GDP and comprehensive competitiveness.

Until this year, Guangdong's Shunde city - home to home appliance giants such as Kelon, Midea, Galanz - has always topped the list. However, Shunde has dropped to second place while Kunshan city in Jiangsu province has taken top spot. Guangdong's Nanhai city, which used to be second, has fallen to sixth.

Thus it is starting to appear that growth in Guangdong as a whole, along with its most competitive cities, is losing steam. There are reasons behind it.

First, Guangdong is short of natural resources such as energy and raw materials. Price hikes for coal and raw materials since last year hurt.

Guangdong's economy also relies heavily on Hong Kong investment and trade. This gave the area a marked advantage over other mainland regions in the 1980s and 1990s, when the entire country was thirsting for foreign capital. But this advantage may now be a double-edged sword.

China's entry into the World Trade Organization has brought hordes of multinationals, eager to invest. With the Pearl River Delta crowded with Hong Kong investment, the multinationals have opted for the Yangtze River Delta and elsewhere.

Since most Hong Kong investment came to the Pearl River Delta in the 1980s, it has focused on labor-intensive manufacturing and processing industries. In other words, Guangdong's growth has largely relied on Hong Kong-invested "sweat factories" with low technology.

Hong Kong's close ties with Guangdong mean the province's economy inevitably affects the SAR. With its economy remaining sluggish since 1997, Hong Kong's contribution to Guangdong's growth has inevitably been reduced.

Since the Pearl River Delta's growth patterns largely model Hong Kong's, as Guangdong has developed in recent years, its relationship to Hong Kong has become increasingly more competitive, rather than mutually beneficial as before. For example, Hong Kong's sea- and airborne transport businesses are facing increasing competition from newer, cheaper operations in the Pearl River Delta.

In addition, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have set out to take Hong Kong's bread and butter by seeking to become regional financial centers, despite Hong Kong's position as one of the world's premier international financial hubs. Neither side can win from such cutthroat competition.

Hong Kong has played a crucial role in Guangdong's economic miracle.

The Hong Kong factor is an integral part of Guangdong's economy. In its competition with other mainland regions, Guangdong must play up this factor.

This is probably the message Zhang was seeking to deliver with his comments. But there must be better coordination in the economic integration of Guangdong and Hong Kong. And this is exactly the job Zhang must devote his efforts to.