By Cao Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-05-25 07:06

SHANGHAI: Shanghai Party chief Xi Jinping said yesterday the social security fund scandal had exposed weak points in the city's Party construction and there were lessons to be learnt.

Xi, 53, a native of Shaanxi Province, who was appointed Shanghai Party secretary after his precedessor Chen Liangyu was sacked for involvement in the corruption scandal, in which 3.7 billion yuan ($486 million) was embezzled for highway construction and investment in properties, said the city has been developing in a stable manner following the revelation of the scandal last September.

"But we have to learn lessons from the scandal and Chen Liangyu's serious rule violations, and take effective measures to rectify past misconduct," he told delegates to the Ninth Shanghai Party Congress yesterday.

"We must see clearly that the scandal has affected the image of the Party committee in Shanghai and a negative influence on the city's reform and development.

"It has also to some extent shaken the ideological thinking of the city's leading group.

"The main problems the municipal Party committee are facing is not paying enough attention to anti-corruption within the Party and a defective system of appointing and supervising officials.

"There are a few officials who monopolize power and some even take advantage of their power to profit," he said.

Xi, famous for being tough on corruption, was chosen as Shanghai's Party secretary in March after the scandal brought down a dozen senior officials and heads of several major State-owned enterprises.

Last week, four more officials including the former general manager of China's Formula 1 racing circuit, Yu Zhifei, were expelled from the Party after they were found to be linked to the scandal.

Before going to Shanghai, Xi was the Party secretary of Zhejiang Province.

The Ninth Shanghai Party Congress, due to end on May 28, will elect a new Party committee.

Xi stressed in his speech the goal of building Shanghai into an international economic, finance, trading and shipping hub before 2020. And in five years, there must be some concrete progress toward that goal.

"The development of the service sector will be a major pillar in realizing that goal," he said.

"And we will have to seize the opportunities of the Shanghai World Exposition in 2010 and Pudong's expansive reform to help that goal."

Xi also reiterated the importance of improving people's livelihood, and promised to keep the unemployment rate low, complete the city's social security coverage, and provide more low-rent housing.

He set the unemployment rate at under 4.5 percent, and encouraged self-employment.

More preferential policies and training will be given to people who start their own businesses.

Xi also promised to raise pension and medical insurance standards in suburban areas and include more immigrants' into the welfare system.

In the past 15 years, the city has maintained a two-digit GDP (gross domestic products) growth and in the past five years the average growth was 12.2 percent. In 2006, Shanghai's GDP was more than 1 trillion yuan.

Residents in both urban and suburban areas have increased their disposable income by 60 and 57 percent respectively.

Almost 13 million people have been included in the city's welfare system. The total population of Shanghai was 13.68 million at the end of last year.

Shanghai has effectively lowered its energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan GDP by 17 percent.

(China Daily 05/25/2007 page4)