By Diao Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-22 14:37

Newly appointed Vice-Premier Wang Qishan is well aware of the challenges ahead.

The former Beijing mayor, who used to serve 20 million people in the capital, said he now has much broader responsibilities working for a population of 1.3 billion.

"It is not an easy job," he said on the sidelines of the National People's Congress annual session, which closed on Tuesday.

Wang has been known as a "fireman" who comes to the rescue whenever emergencies occur.

He was appointed Beijing mayor in 2003 to contain the spread of SARS. In the late 1990s, as Guangdong vice-governor, he handled the biggest debt restructuring in China's history, following the bankruptcy of two government-owned investment companies in the province.

The 59-year-old native of Shanxi studied history in college and worked for three years at a museum in Shaanxi province. His interest shifted to finance when he studied China's rural problems. And that led to his first job in finance, working for a rural trust and investment corporation. He took various jobs in the finance sector afterwards, ranging from vice-governor of China's central bank to president of China Construction Bank.

Wang is known for his quick and no-nonsense style, once saying that government work should be as disciplined as an army. After taking on the role as mayor of Beijing during the SARS outbreak, he quickly made thousands of extra hospital beds available and made information known to the public on a daily basis.

Wang is candid and humorous. "Everyone complains to me about sewage, water, rubbish and the toilets in Beijing," the then Beijing mayor said. "The only one that does not complain is my wife."

Wang also pays great attention to detail. "The devil's in the detail," he often says.

Experts believe his track record, together with his personality, make him an ideal candidate to take care of China's economy in the era of globalization, and facilitate reform of the financial system.

Wang is a friend of US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

"He's a man of enormous capabilities," Paulson said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "He understands markets, he understands people. He knows how to communicate. I don't speak Chinese, he doesn't speak English, but he's very easy for me to communicate with."