Xi Jinping was elected secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shanghai Municipal Committee on Monday.

Xi, born in June 1953, was elected to the post at the first plenary session of the Ninth CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee.

Xi was appointed to the post by the CPC Central Committee in March this year. Former party chief of Shanghai Chen Liangyu was removed from his post in September 2006 due to a corruption scandal.

Before he was appointed Shanghai party chief, Xi was party chief of neighboring Zhejiang Province.

Han Zheng, mayor of Shanghai, and Yin Yicui were elected deputy secretaries of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee.

Xi said in a report to the municipal CPC congress, which opened last Thursday, that lessons had to be learnt from the social security fund scandal.

He said the scandal had revealed inadequate supervision of senior officials and a lack of integrity among some leaders who put their personal interests before those of the Party.

"We must build efficient supervision systems," said Xi, adding that it was crucial to prevent power abuse at its source.

Chen Liangyu was sacked for his involvement in the Shanghai pension fund scandal. Some officials were accused of misappropriating 3.7 billion yuan (US$483 million) from the fund to invest in risky real estate, road and other projects.

Xi pledged in the report that big progress must be made in the next five years to accomplish the long-term goal of building Shanghai into an international economic, financial, trade and shipping center.

Shanghai's gross domestic product surpassed one trillion yuan (US$129.8 billion) last year. The city's population reached 13.6 million at the end of 2005.

The city has maintained an average annual growth of 12.2 percent in its GDP over the past five years and kept a double-digit GDP growth rate for the past 15 consecutive years.

(Xinhua News Agency, May 29, 2007)