Cai Yingbo

MEMBERS attending the annual session of the city's advisory body yesterday offered a package of suggestions on economic policy, aiming to improve Shenzhen's competitiveness as an international metropolis.

"How to attract more international talent to work and live in Shenzhen is significant as Shenzhen is being developed into an international metropolis," Li Hua, chairman of the board of Excellence Group Corp., said at a panel discussion yesterday, the first day of the Fourth Session of the Fourth Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

He believed a better living environment could attract more people from different places in the world and good educational system and public order were prerequisites for success.

"To improve Shenzhen's international competitiveness, the city has to transform the economic growth mode to knowledge-intensive and modern services-based ones," Li Decheng, chairman of the local CPPCC, said while responding to the suggestions of political advisers.

Li said one of the most important elements for Shenzhen to become an international metropolis was to control the floating population and improve the quality of life for its citizens, including migrant workers.

In January, Li commissioned four universities to research the ways to improve Shenzhen's competitiveness after the municipal committee of the Communist Party of China set the goal to learn and catch up with advanced cities including Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul.

To improve the city's competitiveness, according to Li, the city must build its economic strength by promoting high-tech, high-end service industries and establish an open-ended economic system to upgrade industries and optimize resources.

"Strengthening all-round cooperation with Hong Kong, especially in finance, education, science and technology, is a short-cut for the city's metropolis drive," Li said.

During the more than two-hour discussions, some members put forward suggestions in terms of Shenzhen's economy field. They believed that the tourism and exhibition industries would have the most potential to develop in the coming few years.