New head for Chinese commerce body ACFIC

Wang Qinmin was elected on Monday as chairman of the executive committee of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), also known as China's non-governmental chamber of commerce.

During the first plenary session of the ACFIC's 11th executive committee, Quan Zhezhu was appointed executive vice chairman and another 23 people were elected vice chairpersons, including 44-year-old Li Yanhong, CEO of Chinese search engine giant Baidu.

Wang vowed to make the ACFIC further serve the development of the country's non-public economic sector.

In the coming five years, the organization will promote the healthy development of the non-public economic sector by adjusting its growth mode, he said.

The ACFIC will also play a guiding role in the development of business people in this field by training them into qualified builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics, according to Wang.

The organization will fully play its role in the field of ideological education among non-public business circles and help people among these groups better participate in the country's political and social affairs, he added.

the new ACFIC chairman vowed that the federation will promote reform and development of related industry associations, help in building harmonious labor relations, and actively play its role in channeling disputes, coordinating different interests and safeguarding rights in non-public economic circles.

Wang, 64, is a member of the China Zhi Gong Party, one of the eight non-Communist political parties in China.

Before he was elected chairman of ACFIC's executive committee, he had been the executive vice chairman of the Central Committee of the China Zhi Gong Party since December 2007.

As an academic of geo-information science, Wang obtained his master and doctoral degrees at the Imperial College of the University of London between 1984 and 1990. He then conducted research in Japan for almost 10 years and came back to China in 1999.

Wang's predecessor, Huang Mengfu, who had served as ACFIC chief since 2002, became the organization's honorary chairman on Monday.

Ling Jihua, head of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, congratulated ACFIC's new leadership during Monday's meeting.

He expressed hope that the federation can contribute more to the country's goals of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society and achieving new victories in building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Founded in 1953, the ACFIC is a non-governmental organization chiefly made up by enterprises and people in the non-public industrial and commercial sector.

It has more than 2.94 million enterprise, group and individual members.