On January 15, 2024, Sun Zhiyang, the acting mayor of Guangzhou, delivered the government work report at the Fourth Session of the 16th Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress.

The main targets for Guangzhou's economic and social development this year addressed in the report include: a regional GDP growth rate of no less than 5 percent; a 6 percent increase in fixed asset investment; a 5.5 percent growth in total retail sales of consumer goods; a positive growth of the value in goods import and export; a growth of over 3 percent of the added value of all industries above the designated size; a 3 percent growth in local general public budget revenue;  an increase in consumer prices maintained around 3 percent with residents’ incomes increasing in tandem with economic growth; over 240,000 new jobs in the urban area; and both the proportion of days with good air quality and the proportion of surface water of fairly good quality meeting the targets set by the province.