Governor of Hainan promoted as island's Communist Party secretary

Hainan's governor has been promoted to become the island's Communist Party secretary in another provincial personnel reshuffle by the central government.

Wei Liucheng replaces Wang Xiaofeng, who will take up a position supervising the Three Gorges Dam project, according to the Hong Kong China News Agency.

It said Mr Wang, 62, would be named vice-chairman of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, which is chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao , and also serve as its general office director and party secretary.

Mr Wei, 60, worked for the China National Offshore Oil Corp for 21 years until he became its party chief in 1998 and chief executive of its Hong Kong-listed arm, CNOOC Ltd. In October 2003 he was appointed deputy party secretary of Hainan and four months later was promoted to provincial governor.

According to Xinhua, Mr Wei made great strides in attracting major investment to Hainan and improving the well-being of the impoverished province. His style, Xinhua said, was to 'seek facts and work pragmatically'.

Under his leadership the island's investment environment improved and some structural problems stemming from the burst property bubbles of the 1990s were resolved, the report said.