Guan Aiguo, Party secretary of the city of Kunshan in Jiangsu province, recently visited the Huaqiao Economic Development Zone, and he urged Huaqiao to strive to improve people's livelihood and continue its team building efforts.

He said that Huaqiao should continue its efforts to promote the economy of Kunshan and modernization of southern Jiangsu province.

"I‘m very pleased to see what Huaqiao has achieved today and I am now more confident that Huaqiao will play an increasingly important role in the future," said Guan.

Guan also visited the construction site of the extension of Shanghai's metro network Line 11 and took a ride on a light-rail train. He called for rapid progress to be made in the construction work – while maintaining quality and safety – so as to start the operation of the extension in September.

Guan also said that the surrounding environment should also be improved, so as to offer an image of an international business city.

The added value of the service industry of Huaqiao Economic Development Zone is expected to reach 5.143 billion yuan ($839 million) during the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 26.2 percent. The added value of the third industry as a share of local GDP hit 69.3 percent, up 5 percent over the previous year. The service sector aims to achieve 13.4 billion yuan this year - twice as much as last year.

Edited by Niva Whyman and Li Xiaoliang