Shanghai mayor touts rosy growth

Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng told foreign business executives Sunday that the scandal-plagued city was headed for its 15th consecutive year of double-digit economic growth. This will see its total gross domestic product (GDP) break through the RMB1 trillion (US$127 billion) mark for the first time, the <i>South China Morning Post</i> reported. Han said Shanghai's GDP growth was 12.2% in the first 10 months of this year compared with 11.1% for all of last year. Despite his optimism, there was a nod to central government concerns as he said the city was seeking to move away from rapid growth to more sustainable development. Han made no direct reference to the pension fund scandal in his speech, but at a news conference afterwards he downplayed the effect of the scandal on the business environment and said the government would improve supervision and transparency.