On 4 December 2019, Bengbu city of Anhui province appointed Zhou Weixin (周伟新), former Bank of China Anhui Branch vice president, as vice mayor.
Zhou is the third financial vice mayor appointed in Anhui in the past two weeks. On 28 November 2019, Huangshan city of Anhui province appointed He Yi (何毅), former PICC Operation Department deputy general manager, as vice mayor. One day before on 27 November 2019, Ma’anshan city of Anhui province appointed Zheng Xiuxu (郑琇煦), former ICBC Private Banking Department deputy general manager, as vice mayor.
The role of these financial vice mayors will likely focus on driving financial development in Anhui, a financially-backward inland province that now needs to catch up with Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang—China’s most financially-advanced provinces—because of Anhui’s inclusion into the Yangtze River Delta integration initiative.