On April 11, Mr. Yu Zhengsheng, Politburo member of CPC Central Committee and Shanghai Party Secretary, who was on his visit to the UK, met in London respectively with British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable. The two sides had conducive conversations on deepening the friendly relations between China and the UK and strengthening the practical economic and trade cooperation between Shanghai and the UK.

Mr. Yu said at the meeting that in the first year of the Twelfth Five Year Plan, Shanghai has proposed "innovation-driven transformation and development", with an aim to further expand opening up through innovation and vigorously develop advanced manufacturing and modern services to attract more multinational headquarters and R&D centres to Shanghai for development and further strengthen the leading role of Shanghai in the development of China. This also presents an opportunity of development for British companies.

Mr. Clegg said that the UK and China have strong economic complementarity, the British Government attaches importance and is committed to the development of the UK-China partnership for growth and the British business community hopes to develop in Shanghai and continue to expand the fields of cooperation to strengthen the economic and trade exchanges between the UK and Shanghai.

Later, Mr. Yu attended the dinner for British and Chinese entrepreneurs hosted by the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC). He also delivered a keynote speech and answered questions at the dinner. Mr. Yu's speech, which focused on hot topics such as the "priorities for the development of Shanghai in the next five years" and "the fields for the development of cooperation between the UK and Shanghai", attracted enthusiastic response from the participants with its simple but profound implication and sincerity. The dinner was attended by over 150 people, including Mr. Stephen Green, UK Minister for Trade and Investment, Lord Sassoon, Commercial Secretary to the HM Treasury as well as representatives from the financial circle and other sectors.

During his stay in the UK, Mr. Yu also visited BP, GlaxoSmithKline and other British multinationals, and conducted in-depth exchanges with the executives of famous British financial firms such as HSBC and AVIVA. He met with Mr. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, a sister city of Shanghai, attended the overseas talents forum and went to Longbridge in Birmingham to visit the engineering and design centre and manufacturing base of Shanghai Automotive Industry Group as a part of Shanghai's implementation of the "going global" strategy.

Mr. Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese Ambassador to the UK, and Mr. Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee and Secretary-General of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, who accompanied Mr. Yu'on his visit, attended the above events.