Speaking at a municipal conference on agriculture, Vice Mayor Feng Guoqin said that the city would work in two major fields to help achieve this goal.

In agricultural production, the city planned to allocate one third of its agricultural land to the growing of vegetables and fruits for export.

In marketing, the city intended to set a platform for Chinese agricultural products to enter the international market and a platform for overseas agricultural products to enter China. It also intended to be a world center of information on agricultural products.

Feng said the move followed China's entry into the WTO. "Overseas fruits have landed in Shanghai and begun to compete for market share. Meanwhile, weakened demand on the international market means more difficulties in exporting agricultural products," said Feng.

Yet he believed that opportunities outweighed difficulties. "International capital favors Shanghai and this means more financing channels for the opening up of Shanghai's agriculture," said Feng.

(People's Daily April 1, 2002)