GUANGZHOU: South China's Guangdong province, one of the nation's key economic powerhouses, officially flagged off the Pearl River Delta region reform and development planning program over the weekend.

The program aims to achieve a GDP of 3.15 trillion yuan ($460 billion) within the region this year, 4 trillion yuan by 2012 and 7.25 trillion yuan by 2020.

At the launch, Huang Huahua, provincial governor of Guangdong, said that the program would be carried out in three stages.