Sustained growth and more reform for Shanghai
Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong is “fully confident” about the city’s economic growth.
After the conclusion of the Shanghai People’s Congress, he highlighted deepening free trade zone reform and encouraging rental of homes as government priorities.
“We are fully confident about Shanghai’s economic growth,” Ying said at a press conference. “But what concentrated minds most is the highquality development, higher living standards of the people, stability, better structure, and sustainability behind GDP growth.”
He added that Shanghai will expand functions of free trade accounts that are used to make financial operations in the FTZ. So far, 70,000 such accounts have been opened with total fundraising topping 1.1 trillion yuan (US$174 billion).
Ying said adjustment on housing market will be essential and the government will transform some residential housing into rental homes.
Ying was elected Shanghai’s mayor at the annual session of the Shanghai People’s Congress in January.
Ying, 61, is a native of Zhejiang Province. He served in posts that include the public security department in Zhejiang and the higher court in Shanghai.
Legislators also elected Yin Yicui, 63, as director of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai People’s Congress.
Eight vice mayors were elected. They are Zhou Bo, Weng Tiehui, Shi Guanghui, Wu Qing, Xu Kunlin, Peng Chenlei, Chen Qun, and Gong Dao’an.
Zhou, 56, is former deputy secretary-general of the city government and director of the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission.
Weng, 54, is former vice president of Fudan University and deputy secretary-general of the city government.
Shi, 48, is former deputy director of Jing’an District and Party chief of Fengxian District.
Wu, 53, is former director of Hongkou District and Party secretary of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Xu, 53, is former deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Peng, 56, is former director of Fengxian District, Party secretary of what was then Chongming County and deputy secretary of the city’s Party discipline commission.
Chen, 54, is former president of East China Normal University.
Gong, 54, is also Party secretary and head of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau and former secretary of political and legal affairs commission in Xianning, Hubei Province.
Furthermore, Shanghai now has its first supervisory commission director — 55-year-old Liao Guoxun.
China has started setting up supervisory commissions at the national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, as part of a supervisory system reform. The commissions will supervise the execution of duty and ethics by public functionaries, investigate illegal activities such as graft, misuse of power, neglect of duty and wasting of public funds, issue administrative penalties, and transfer potential criminal cases to the procuratorates.
Liao is also a member of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and secretary of the city’s Party discipline commission.
Born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, he has in the past served as Party secretary of Tongren, Guizhou Province, secretary-general of the CPC Guizhou Committee and organization department chief of the CPC Zhejiang Committee.