Pittsburgh on display in China
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Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is seen on closed circuit monitors in a conference hall in Shanghai.
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SHANGHAI, China -- "Chung sher, raahng shung hwo gung may hao," said a confident Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
"Good," replied Pennsylvania China representative Ning Shao, sitting across the aisle in the same van. "Better City, Better Life -- it's the Expo slogan."
A few minutes later Mr. Ravenstahl and his delegation stood among the sea of dark suits and skirts awaiting transport from the Peninsula Hotel to the 22nd International Business Leaders Advisory Council.
His tour bus convoy of global civic and business leaders snaked through the streets as Shanghai police blocked all other car traffic.
"A high-rise forest," mused Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon, glancing from his bus at a neighborhood of stark gray apartment buildings.
At 8:55 a.m., the mayor took his seat around a giant elliptical table in the center of a blue and white conference room as an usher rang small bells summoning to their seats 500 of what the local English-language state-run newspaper, Shanghai Daily, that morning had called "the best brains from the world's leading corporations." Their job for the day would be to advise Shanghai, and its leader, Mayor Han Zheng, how to maintain its 10 percent growth "as a vibrant and innovative city."
Suggestions ranged from creating a transparent and corruption-free system of financing to giving tax breaks for innovation, to freeing Shanghai's food supply of contaminants to ensuring that every taxi in the city was equipped with seat belts.
Council Chairman Jacob Wallenberg, CEO of Investor AB, a 94 year-old family-owned investment company headquartered in Stockholm, introduced the mayor.
"Can I just say that the mayor is a young leader with a very impressive career. Mayor Ravenstahl has taken a city that was facing serious financial challenges. This city's bond rating has been upgraded four times -- an envy for most of us," said Mr. Wallenberg.
First Published October 11, 2010 12:00 am
