Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said here Wednesday that the municipal authorities
will draw lessons from the social security fund scandal and improve government
service and responsibility.
The mayor, also acting Communist Party chief of Shanghai, made the remarks at
a panel discussion of legislators from the metropolis during the annual full
session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.
The municipal government has set the goal of building "a government of
services, a government with responsibility and a government ruled by law"
through better supervision over administration and the improvement of political
system, said Han.
Han said Shanghai gained good economic and social development last year with
the resolute implementation of the macro-economic control policies of the
central government and with the unswerving efforts to fight corruption.
"The year of 2007 is of great importance for Shanghai as we are faced with
many chances as well as challenges, even difficulties. But Shanghai will surely
maintain its growth trend in economic and social development so long as we
follow the requirements of the central government to make renovations in our
work," he said.
Involving 3.7 billion yuan (474 million U.S. dollars), the Shanghai social
security fund scandal was revealed to the public last year. It led to the
downfall of over a dozen senior officials and business people including Chen
Liangyu, former secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of Communist Party
of China (CPC), and Qiu Xiaohua, former head of the National Bureau of
Statistics.
The Shanghai CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection and Shanghai Commission
of Supervision announced last week that another nine Shanghai officials involved
in the scandal had been expelled from the CPC and their governmental posts and
they would face criminal charges.
Mayor Han Zheng said in January this year that the city had retrieved all the
money siphoned from the Shanghai social security fund for illicit loans and
investments last year.
