At the third session of the Ninth Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress on January 27, Zhang Zhongwei was elected the governor of the province.

Zhang was born in 1942 and served as deputy head of the organization department of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and head of the provincial agriculture and animal husbandry department.

Since February, 1993, Zhang has been deputy governor of the province. Zhang was appointed as acting governor of the province in June last year.

With rich resources, Sichuan is an important region in the Chinese central government's strategy to spur economic growth in China's landlocked western areas.