Private businessmen in Chongqing are waiting for any signs of economic policy change under its new leadership before deciding whether to invest more in the economically robust southwestern municipality or cautiously pull out.
Huang Wei, the head of the Chongqing Municipal Private Business Association, said nothing had yet changed for entrepreneurs since the removal of Bo Xilai as Chongqing's Communist Party secretary last Thursday and his replacement by Zhang Dejiang .
'Quite a number of private business bosses are, for the moment, more willing to wait and see, as they have no idea if Zhang is a transitional figure,' Huang said.
Zhang, also a vice-premier, made his name for the rapid development of the private economy in Zhejiang when he was party chief of the affluent coastal province between 1998 and 2002. He is also widely tipped to become a new member of the party's powerful Politburo Standing Committee later this year.
It is unclear whether Zhang will alter the orientation of Chongqing's economic development, but he has repeatedly stressed the importance of reform and opening up - the policy legacy left by former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping .
Bo's policy stance seemed closer to Mao Zedong than Deng, but with the help of his deputy, Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan , Bo oversaw rapid economic growth in the municipality in the past few years. Chongqing's economic output topped one trillion yuan (HK$1.23 trillion) for the first time last year, up more than 16 per cent year on year and topping the mainland growth table with Tianjin .