Thirty-nine foreigners yesterday received Magnolia Silver Awards, one of the top honors Shanghai government bestows on expatriates for extraordinary contributions to the city's social and economic development.

Douglas Anderson, chairman of Shanghai Nexas Kanghua Cable Co Ltd, shares a light moment with his three-and-a-halfyear- old son Alex and wife Rebecca yesterday after the city government presented him with a Magnolia Silver Award. 

Among the winners were citizens of the United States, Japan, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Singapore.

Most of the award winners were business executives, front-line technicians or education professionals.

Each of the recipients was given a silver medal and a certificate.

"We appreciated the contributions these expatriates made to the city's social economic development very much," said Yang Guoqiang, director of the city government's foreign affairs office.

He said the expats deserved the gratitude of all Shanghai citizens.

James Thomas Gagne, managing director of Schenker China Ltd and one of the award winners, said he was honored to witness the progress Shanghai has made over the past decade or so.

"I still remember the first time I came to Shanghai. Construction sites were everywhere, and there were no high- rises in Pudong, except for the Oriental Pearl," said Gagne, an American who spoke Mandarin at the awards ceremony.

"Shanghai has developed at an incredibly fast speed, and I feel lucky to have made my contribution here," said Gagne, who married a Shanghai woman and had a "joint-venture" daughter three months ago.

Since 1989, the Magnolia Silver Award has been given to 591 people.