An expert on road transport management and construction was elected vice mayor of Beijing Friday at a municipal parliamentary session.

Huang Wei, 47, is also the first academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering to take one of the top jobs in the capital.

"I feel it's a great honor ... though quite stressful, too," he said at the seventh session of the 13th Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress that concluded Friday. "There's a lot more I should learn to live up to everyone's expectations in my new job, and I will double my efforts."

Huang said he would work with his new colleagues at the municipal government to assist Mayor Guo Jinlong to build Beijing into a better place.

A native of the eastern Jiangsu Province and major of transport engineering, Huang was a teacher for 16 years and was appointed vice principal of the Southeast University in 1998.

In February 2003, he was elected vice governor of his home province, a job that lasted only seven months. Thanks to his achievements in tackling the SARS crisis in the spring and early summer that year, he was named vice minister of construction in September 2003.

As vice minister, Huang was reputed for his efforts to build an effective mechanism to ensure migrant workers at construction sites were paid in time.

Huang, with his expertise in road transport and construction, is widely expected to help the congested capital city ease its bottlenecks in traffic and urban planning, said Prof. Wang Yukai, a public administration specialist with National School of Administration.

"Hopefully he will use his profound knowledge and expertise in their fields to solve Beijing's problems in urban development," said Prof. Wang.

Beijing, a city with 17 million residents, has about 3.5 million vehicles, with an additional 1,200 taking to the roads every day. Many residents complain about congestion, pollution and lack of housing and other resources in the bulging city.

(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2008)