Although China as a whole is still a developing country, some of the Chinese provincial regions, if viewed as independent countries, can be ranked among the world's top developed economies, according to a report published on Monday.

That signals China's accelerating pace of growth, a nation that overtook Japan as the world's second-biggest economy last month.

In a comparison between 10 Chinese provincial regions and 34 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, a research study conducted by the National Economic Competitiveness Research Center, discovered that many of China's top economic provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces would rank among the top economies of OECD member countries.

Most OECD members are high-income countries and regarded as developed economies. China is not a member of the OECD.

"Although China has long been viewed as a developing economy, the economic development level of some Chinese provinces has reached that of many developed economies," said Li Minrong, a professor from Fujian Normal University, who headed the research.

In terms of gross domestic product (GDP) volume, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces have surpassed countries such as Belgium, Sweden, Poland and Portugal among OECD countries, ranking 13th, 14th and 16th, according to the research.

Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin have also surpassed some of the OECD countries in terms of GDP per capita, the research report said.

China had adopted a strategy that encouraged economic development in eastern coastal regions since it began economic reform in 1978. The provinces, such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing and Shanghai, rose quickly to become the country's biggest economic engines in the following decades, relying mostly on huge investments and exports. In terms of proportion of the fixed-assets investment in GDP, the 10 selected Chinese provincial regions have surpassed that of all 34 OECD countries, according to the report.

Chinese provinces also ranked high in terms of proportion of exports in GDP, the report said.

"From these figures, we can see that China's economic growth still relies heavily on investment and exports," said Li. He said China has been lagging behind major developed economies in terms of the contributions of consumption to GDP.

On Sunday, Premier Wen Jiabao said the government has set its annual GDP growth target at 7 percent for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), and will increase efforts to improve people's living standards.

The target was lower than the 7.5 percent set for the previous five years, during which China's economy grew at an annual rate of about 10 per cent, according to official figures.