"Under the current international situation, we must concentrate on our own business, boost economic construction and enhance China's national strength," Jiang said during a panel discussion with deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, from Shanghai.

This is of vital importance to building China into a relatively affluent society in an all-round way and to realizing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, he said.

Jiang, former general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, spoke highly of the work done by the new CPC Central Committee, with Hu Jintao as general secretary, elected in the 16th CPC National Congress held last November.

The Shanghai deputies are here attending the on-going First Session of the 10th NPC, a national meeting which Jiang said is very important as a new state and government leadership will be elected.

On Shanghai's development, Jiang hoped the people in Shanghai would vigorously step up research into strategic high technologies and develop an array of key technologies with full property right.

The CPC Central Committee and central government, as early as the 1990s, decided to build Shanghai into one of the international economic, financial, trade and shipping centers that would play a leading role in economic development in areas along the Yangtze River, China's longest that enters the sea in Shanghai.

(People's Daily March 8, 2003)