Shanghai Vice-Mayor Feng Guoqin, a key figure in the city's growth as a financial centre, is set to step down and become a political adviser in a government reshuffle, sources close to Mr Feng said yesterday. Mr Feng, 58, would replace Jiang Yiren as chairman of the Shanghai branch of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body, the sources said. Mr Jiang would retire from the post, which is a senior position but carries no major decision-making responsibility. A Shanghai government spokeswoman declined to comment. As vice-mayor, Mr Feng has been in charge of developing financial services in Shanghai, the mainland's financial hub. At a government meeting held yesterday and reported by Shanghai Television, Mr Feng was still referred to as vice-mayor and his other title, a member of the standing committee of Shanghai's Municipal Committee, the city's top Communist Party body. Mr Feng is widely respected among senior mainland representatives of large foreign banks such as Citigroup and HSBC. He frequently attends financial forums to encourage foreign companies to invest in Shanghai's financial sector. Mr Feng is seen as close to the city's former party secretary, Chen Liangyu , who was sacked in September over a corruption scandal.
