In the morning of January 19th, Member of the Political Bureau and Shanghai Party's Secretary, Yu Zhengsheng met Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and expressed warm welcome to his visiting to Shanghai.

Yu said, Shanghai is constructing international economic, financial, trading and shipping center, so we really look forward to deepening and broadening the cooperation with Britain in financial and shipping fields and enhancing co-development through such cooperation. Yu said, Shanghai is a key city for Chinese economy and finance. Shanghai experienced many changes in these years but also encountered a lot of challenges and tests. Currently, Shanghai strives for transforming the economic development mode and facilitating development of modern service sector and advanced manufacturing industry. Shanghai has a good cooperative relation with Britain. Britain has rich experiences in modern service sectors, especially in financial services and shipping industry which are very valuable for us. In addition, there is also a huge potential for both parties to exchange and cooperate in depth in other fields such as environmental protection and petrochemical industry. It is expected that both parties would strengthen cooperation in such fields and establish closer relationship. Yu Zhengsheng also said, Shanghai is preparing the World Expo 2010 Shanghai China and so far, there are 192 countries and international organizations that confirmed on participation. The construction of Expo site and pavilions are progressed actively. Britain has officially signed the contract with us and released the design plan for its national pavilion. I wish that the British Pavilion would become one of most attractive pavilions of Expo Shanghai.

Gordon Brown also expressed his appreciation for Shanghai's hospitality. He said, "The whole world is surprised with the achievements obtained by Shanghai. Britain has a lot of cooperation projects with Shanghai, and many British entrepreneurs have developed their careers in Shanghai. We also expect to enlarge the cooperation and exchange with Shanghai in financial services and other fields."Yang Jiechi, the Minister of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Fu Ying, Ambassador of Chinese Embassy in Britain, Ding Xuexiang, Member of Shanghai Party Standing Committee and General Secretary of Shanghai Party's Committee, and Tang Dengjie, Deputy Mayor were present at the meeting.