Hang Yingwei, head of Shanghai's Pudong New Area, and Mark Garnier, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at UK's Department for International Trade, expressed their hopes of boosting economic cooperation between China and Britain during a meeting held on March 28.

Hang introduced Pudong's status as home to the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone and its significant role in developing Shanghai into a scientific and technological innovation center. Hang boasted that Pudong's economy accounts for one third of Shanghai's total, despite only comprising one fifth of the city's land and a quarter of its total population.

Hang also underlined the extent of the area's progress in the shipping industry over the past few years, with its container throughput, the quantity of material passing through a system, ranking first in the world and the cargo throughput at its airports ranking the third worldwide.

The district head added that Pudong will further its opening up over the coming next years in the hope of strengthening China-UK economic cooperation.

Mark Garnier said he has witnessed China's rapid growth over the past three decades and was impressed by Pudong's development. He also stated his expectations of a strengthened economic partnership between the two governments and an increasing number of exchanges between professionals and companies of both sides.