(CFP)

Wan Qingliang was elected mayor of Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong Province, on April 16. He replaced Zhang Guangning who was named Party chief of Guangzhou earlier this month.

Wan, 46, had been a vice governor of Guangdong since January 2008, with foreign trade and economic cooperation as his area of responsibility. He is credited with leading the local export-oriented manufacturing sector to weather the global downturn during the recent crisis.

Previous to his promotion to the provincial post, Wan served as mayor of Jieyang in east Guangdong between 2003 and 2004.

Guangzhou, which will host the 16th Asian Games in November, is one of China's five officially designated "key" cities, along with Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. It is also the first provincial capital with an annual gross domestic product topping 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion).