News: Former Shantou Party Secretary Fang Lixu (方利旭) was appointed head of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Guangdong Committee (广东贸促会) today, replacing Lin Tao (林涛), who was promoted to Heyuan Mayor. Fang’s successor is Ma Wentian (马文田), former Guangzhou Vice Mayor.
Quick Take: As we observed, there has been a notable wave of personnel reshuffling in the Teoswa region in Guangdong recently, following the latest ones on 8 May. CCPIT is a provincial foreign trade promotion organization, with main responsibilities to promote Guangdong’s cross-border economic cooperation and further the internationalization of local businesses. CCPIT has previously played an important role particularly with trade and matters concerning HK and Macau. More importantly, Fang is the first departmental-level ranked official to be appointed to the post—his predecessor Lin Tao was only ranked vice departmental-level as Shanwei CCPSC member and Propaganda Department Chairman before being transferred to CCPIT. This means that CCPIT is going to play a bigger role in the region, most likely to better assist the rapid development of the GBA.