China's largest industrial and commercial center Shanghai is building itself into an international economic, financial, trade and shipping center, Mayor Xu Kuangdi said in Beijing on March 8.

The aim is to turn the metropolis into a major international business center on the west side of the Pacific Ocean in the 21st century, the mayor said at a press conference held by Shanghai deputies to the Third Session of the Ninth National People's Congress.

Xu said that it will take about two decades to achieve the objective.

In the past 20 years, he said, Shanghai has seen greatest changes in history and its development has laid solid foundation for realizing the objective.

According to a report published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai's per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and industrial development standard have reached the level of medium-developed countries.

Xu said Shanghai will open wider to the outside world, revise regulations formulated under a planned economy, further open up its market and give full play to its status as foreign a trade center and deep-water port.

The mayor said that Shanghai will promote its new and high technology focusing on bio-engineering project, information industry and new material industry.

Shanghai will try to boost its competitiveness, improve the service sector, and encourage innovation.

The objective will be laid down in Shanghai's 10th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2001-2005), he said.