The following is the full text of the Report on the Work of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), delivered by NPC Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo for deliberation at the Fifth Session of the Tenth NPC on Sunday:
National People's Congress Fellow Deputies,
On behalf of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC) I now present this report on its work for your deliberation and approval.
Main Accomplishments of Last Year
We thoroughly put into practice the Scientific Outlook on Development and got off to a good start in the 11th Five-Year Plan in 2006. The Standing Committee last year followed the guidelines set out at the Fourth Session of the Tenth NPC in diligently carrying out its duties closely centered around the overall work of the Party and the government, making new achievements in all its work and making further contributions to the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and building a harmonious socialist society.
I. Further progress was made in legislative work.
The Standing Committee made further progress in its legislative work last year. It deliberated and approved 24 draft laws or decisions on legal issues, 14 of which were passed and 5 of which were submitted to this session for your deliberation and approval. This marks a solid step toward achieving the goals for this NPC's legislative work.
1. Appropriate solutions were found to some difficulties in legislation, the Law on Oversight was promulgated and implemented, and the draft Law on Property Rights was submitted to this session for deliberation and approval. The Law on Oversight, which is strongly political in nature, is related to the country's political system and system of government. Formulation of the Law on Oversight was one of the major legislative acts of the NPC. Work actually began on this law at the Sixth NPC and continued for the next two decades. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) paid close attention to the formulation of the Law on Oversight, listening to a number of special reports. General Secretary Hu Jintao presided over a forum of non-Party dignitaries to directly solicit opinions from the democratic parties, leaders of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and persons without party affiliation and deliver an important speech. In his speech, he thoroughly elucidated the importance of strengthening the oversight work of people's congresses, fully analyzed the necessity of formulating the Law on Oversight, emphasized the major principles that must be observed in the formulation work, and clarified the orientation for formulating the law.
The Standing Committee showed a keen sense of responsibility to the Party and the people in listening to a wide range of opinions and carrying out numerous studies and discussions before making major revisions to the draft Law on Oversight on the basis of a review of actual experience.
First, the regulatory scope of the Law on Oversight was clarified by changing the Law on Oversight by the People's Congresses to the Law on Oversight by the Standing Committees of the People's Congresses.
Second, the form and procedures for oversight were improved, focusing on standardizing the areas that the standing committees of people's congresses at all levels showed most concern about and most hoped would be standardized. Two main points were taken into consideration in making this revision:
The first is that the Constitution already clearly defines the oversight functions and powers of the NPC and local people's congresses at all levels and the form and procedures for oversight.
The other is that the Constitution categorically stipulates that the standing committees of people's congresses are responsible for exercising regular oversight over the people's governments, the people's courts and the people's procuratorates.
Moreover, what local governments were exploring ways to standardize was mainly the oversight work of the standing committees of people's congresses. It should be pointed out here that local governments had been making valuable explorations of the way to strengthen the oversight work of people's congresses for years, providing actual experience to help in formulating the Law on Oversight and making a positive contribution to the effort. The Law on Oversight adopted by the Standing Committee fully embodies the organic unity of the leadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country and the running of the government according to the rule of law; correctly balances stronger oversight by people's congresses with the leadership of the Party; correctly balances stronger oversight by people's congresses with support for carrying out the work of the people's governments, the people's courts and the people's procuratorates in accordance with the law; upholds the principles of democratic centralism, collective exercise of functions and powers, collective decision making and acting in accordance with the law and prescribed procedures; and is in line with conditions in China and the actual work situation of people's congresses. The promulgation and implementation of the Law on Oversight reflects the collective wisdom of the NPC deputies, members of the Standing Committee, the deputies to local people's congresses at all levels, experts and scholars and is of great significance for standing committees of people's congresses at all levels in the lawful exercise of their oversight functions and powers, improving the oversight mechanism, strengthening and improving oversight work, making oversight more effective, and giving more play to the characteristics and strengths of the system of people's congresses.
People's congresses at all levels did a great deal of preparatory work for implementing the Law on Oversight.
First, we carefully studied the important speech of General Secretary Hu Jintao through forums, seminars, study classes and other means and gained a thorough understanding of the essence of the Law on Oversight from the vantage point of adherence to the political development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, thereby laying a solid ideological foundation for implementing the Law on Oversight.
Second, local people's congresses at all levels screened all relevant local laws, regulations and decrees on compliance with provisions of the Law on Oversight to make those that already comply with the stipulations of the new law stronger and more detailed and to promptly revise those that are not.
Third, the General Office of the Standing Committee worked out Certain Opinions Concerning Implementation of the Law on Oversight by Organs of the NPC, which sets out the division of labor and responsibility for implementation.
The Law on Property Rights is a basic law for standardizing property relationships, and has a supporting role in the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics. Formulating the Law on Property Rights to improve the legal framework for the socialist property rights system with Chinese characteristics has great significance for adhering to the basic socialist economic system, developing the socialist market economy, safeguarding the vital interests of the masses, and stimulating the creativity of the entire society. In addition, the Law on Property Rights has so strong an economic, policy and technical character that it has been very difficult to formulate and pass, and it has attracted great interest throughout society. It has now been 13 years since work on the first draft was begun. The Standing Committee attached great importance to formulating this legislation, adopted a positive yet cautious attitude and put a great deal of energy into the work.
First, the law was deliberated numerous times. It was deliberated a further six times by the Standing Committee after it was deliberated by the Standing Committee of the Ninth NPC for the first time, a situation rarely seen in the history of Chinese legislation.
Second, opinions from a wide range of sources were solicited. We convened about a hundred forums and a number of discussion meetings so we could directly hear your opinions and those of people from all sectors of society, experts, scholars, and leaders of relevant central government departments. We released the full text of the draft law to obtain a wide range of opinions from all sectors of society, especially from the general public. There have been very few laws in Chinese history for which so many opinions have been sought from so many people.
Third, major revisions were made to the law. We made major revisions in the draft Law on Property Rights in accordance with the comments on it made by the Standing Committee during deliberations and comments expressed at the forums and discussion meetings and from other sources, and in line with the Constitution and other relevant laws. The revisions were mainly made in the following four areas:
1) The law was made to reflect the basic socialist economic system as fully and accurately as possible, which was taken into consideration during the entire legislation process.
2) Protection of state-owned assets was strengthened to address the current concerns of the general public over erosion of these assets.
3) The law was made to fully and accurately embody the basic policy of the Party for the countryside in the current stage to effectively safeguard the interests of rural residents.
4) The focus of the law was on standardizing practical routine matters urgently in need of standardization and issues of the greatest concern to the public.
We consistently emphasized the political orientation and the Chinese characteristics of the Law on Property Rights and the need to proceed from reality during the entire revision process for the draft law. The members of the Standing Committee and non-voting participants in meetings held by the Standing Committee all believe that the revised draft Law on Property Rights fully accords with the principles and policies of the Party introduced since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, fully embodies the stand of the Party and the will of the people, is in line with the conditions and specific situation of the country and is now basically mature. At its twenty-fifth meeting, the Standing Committee passed the draft Law on Property Rights by a large margin, and it has now been submitted to this session for your deliberation and approval.
2. Work was completed on important legislation bearing on overall economic and social development, the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law and the revised Law on Compulsory Education were promulgated and implemented, and the draft Law on Corporate Income Tax has been submitted to this session for your deliberation and approval. Formulating the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law to set up a legal framework for orderly closing down enterprises so that enterprises that perform well can thrive and enterprises that don't can fall by the wayside was an objective requirement for the development of the socialist market economy. The Standing Committee placed great importance on formulating and passing a law on enterprise bankruptcies. It formulated a law on the bankruptcy of state-owned enterprises in 1986, but it was always difficult to implement due to failure to solve the problem of funding to take care of the employees of bankrupted enterprises. The old law on enterprise bankruptcy could no longer meet practical needs as the socialist market economy developed, the reform of state-owned enterprises was deepened and the non-public sector of the economy developed. We urgently needed to formulate a new bankruptcy law that would apply to all enterprises and would be strongly operational. On the basis of a careful review of the legislative work of the past two Standing Committees, the current Standing Committee conducted thorough surveys and studies, widely solicited opinions, once again formulated the draft Enterprise Bankruptcy Law and finally passed it after deliberating it three times. The Enterprise Bankruptcy Law contains special provisions to require giving priority to paying unpaid wages and contributions for social security due from bankrupt enterprises, and also contains provisions to standardize enterprise bankruptcy procedures and protect the legitimate rights of enterprise employees.
Children are the future of the motherland and the hope of the people. Their healthy development is not only of the greatest concern for hundreds of millions of families but is also a basic guarantee for continued burgeoning progress in China's socialist modernization. The Standing Committee completely revised the Law on Compulsory Education and the Law on the Protection of Minors to address serious problems in compulsory education and the protection of minors.
In revising the Law on Compulsory Education, we mainly clarified three areas:
First, we established the legal framework for a mechanism to ensure funding for compulsory education, made it clear that students will no longer be charged for tuition and miscellaneous fees for compulsory education, and left it to the State Council to determine the steps to implement these provisions.
Second, we set out the requirement that development of compulsory education should make the distribution of compulsory education more uniform and that governments at all levels must appropriately distribute education resources.
Third, we incorporated the requirement for competence-oriented education into the law and further clarified the principles and goals for compulsory education.
The revised Law on Compulsory Education more fully embodies the principle of fairness in education, which is of major significance for ensuring the sound development of compulsory education in China.
The revised Law on the Protection of Minors further clarifies the responsibility of families, schools, society and the state in the protection of minors and highlights the right of minors to receive an education, and it will play a major role in ensuring the physical and mental health of minors and protecting their legitimate rights.
Since the policy of reform and opening up was first instituted, farmers have founded hundreds of thousands of specialized cooperative economic organizations, but their legal status has never been clear. The Standing Committee formulated the Law on Specialized Farmer Cooperatives based on extensive surveys and studies, for the first time confirming in a law their status in the market and standardizing their property system and means of distribution. This has great significance for upholding and improving the basic rural operating system, improving the degree of organization among farmers and promoting industrialization of agriculture.
We formulated the Law to Combat Money Laundering on the basis of extensive surveys and studies and a review of actual experience in order to meet the requirements of the fight against money laundering in China and relevant international treaties. The Standing Committee revised the Partnership Enterprise Law to encourage independent innovation and risk investment, strengthen the integration of technology and capital and promote the growth of professional service organizations. The revised Banking Oversight and Management Law gives agencies responsible for overseeing the banking industry the power to carry out investigations and contains provisions stipulating the conditions and procedures for them to carry out such investigations and relevant legal obligations to strengthen oversight and management of the banking industry. The Decision on Revision of the Organic Law of the People's Courts requires that the clause that authorizes higher people's courts to rule on some cases carrying the death penalty be deleted, reserving that power for the Supreme People's Court alone. This will have a major role in ensuring fairness in the judicial system.
The Law on Corporate Income Tax is an important law that affects overall economic and social development. The objective for reform to introduce a unified tax code for enterprises was clearly defined at the Third Plenary Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee. Over 540 of you have submitted 16 bills on formulating a unified law on corporate income tax since the Second Session of the Tenth NPC. The current Standing Committee included formulation of the Law on Corporate Income Tax in the five-year plan for legislation and called on the relevant departments of the State Council to work hard on its formulation. The State Council submitted the proposed draft Law on Corporate Income Tax to the Standing Committee after conducting thorough surveys and studies and extensively soliciting opinions. There were three main changes incorporated in the draft: The first was to unify the income tax rate for domestic and foreign enterprises and standardize the deductible amount. The second was to set a lower tax rate and institute a preferential treatment policy for small enterprises and new- and high-technology enterprises. The third was to adopt a transition measure for enterprises that formerly enjoyed preferential tax status and make appropriate arrangements for special economic zones and the western region. The draft was conscientiously deliberated and revised at the Twenty-fifth Meeting of the Standing Committee, and the decision was made at the same meeting to submit it to this session for your deliberation and approval.
Formulation of the Law on Property Rights and the Law on Corporate Income Tax were two major events in China's legislative work and are two important items on the agenda for this session. Because of the wide concern in society as well as among you about these two laws, when we submitted the drafts of these laws and related documents to you for your deliberation and comments in January, we also organized the leaders of relevant organizations to report to you in different localities on their contents to prepare for deliberation at this session. The Standing Committee and the State Council revised these two proposed laws based on your opinions and the comments members of the Standing Committee made during deliberation and explained the two draft laws to this session. Thanks to your concerted efforts, we are confident that we can successfully formulate these two laws.
3. We continued to make legislative work more scientific and democratic and raise the quality of legislation.
First, in March of last year we released the entire text of the proposed Law on Labor Contracts to the public to solicit opinions from all sectors of society, based on the experience gained in releasing the entire text of the proposed Law on Property Rights to the public in 2005. There was an enthusiastic response throughout society to the release of the draft Law on Labor Contracts. We received nearly 200,000 comments on the draft law from different sectors of society, 65 percent of which came from ordinary workers, while the rest came from the standing committees of the people's congresses of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, from the standing committees of people's congresses of 49 large cities, as well as from 45 concerned central government departments and 45 large enterprises, and from numerous institutions of higher learning and people's organizations. We made an overall analysis and study of all the comments submitted, then picked out 11 fairly representative to discuss at forums. We carefully listened to your comments and those from concerned central government departments, employers, employees, experts and scholars and once again revised the draft law based on the submitted comments and suggestions. The employment issue is of great concern to the general public. The NPC Chairperson's Council decided in February of this year that the full text of the draft Employment Promotion Law that has been deliberated for the first time by the Standing Committee will soon be made available to the general public for comments.
Second, during the process of formulating important legislation such as the Law on Oversight, the Law on Property Rights and the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law, we adopted a cautious attitude in considering the major issues involved in the drafts and the different views on those issues. We constantly maintained the proper political orientation, continued to put people first and continued to proceed from the conditions and realities of China. We recognized the need for thorough surveys and studies, patient negotiation and full discussion, and carefully listened to the comments of concerned departments, members of the general public, experts and scholars to reach a basic consensus and create the right conditions to submit the drafts for deliberation and put them to the vote, so that the final versions of the laws would conform to the conditions and realities of China and stand the test of time. Every time a draft law was deliberated, the members of the Standing Committee and non-voting participants in the meeting showed a keen sense of responsibility, took into consideration all the facts, spoke out freely, held full discussion of all the details and constantly improved the draft law.
Over the past year, the Standing Committee also formulated the Law on the Quality and Safety of Farm Products, the Passport Law and the sixth revision to the Criminal Law. It also passed a resolution concerning strengthening education and publicity to increase public awareness of the law and a decision authorizing the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to manage the Hong Kong Port Area in the Shenzhen Bay Port. Finally, it deliberated the drafts for the Law on Response to Emergencies, the Law on Labor Contracts, the Employment Promotion Law, the Antitrust Law and the Anti-Drug Law.
II. Further achievements were made in oversight work.
There were two prominent features in last year's oversight work of the Standing Committee. First, the Standing Committee focused its oversight on the major issues that have a bearing on the overall interests of reform, development and stability, elicit widespread concern in society, or affect social harmony. Second, the Standing Committee carried out thorough oversight through various means including the hearing and deliberation of work reports on special subjects as well as investigations of compliance with the law. Last year the Standing Committee heard, deliberated and approved eight work reports on special subjects from the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate and investigated the implementation of 12 laws. The State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate attached great importance to the comments and suggestions of the Standing Committee, actively adopted measures to improve their work and made new achievements.
Oversight work was centered on efforts to build a new socialist countryside. Solving the problems related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers and building a new socialist countryside is a long, arduous historic task. The Standing Committee has always been concerned about work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers. On the basis of three consecutive years of oversight in this area, the Standing Committee last year followed up compliance with the Agriculture Law, the Land Administration Law and the Law on Rural Land Contracts. Three suggestions were consequently made concerning major problems in work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers.
First, while continuing to increase budgetary support, we need to make a very strong effort to solve financing problems in rural areas.
Second, we need to shift the focus of infrastructure development toward rural areas to concentrate on solving pressing problems such as the need for more roads, methane facilities and water supplies.
Third, we need to shift the focus of social programs toward rural areas to resolve the practical difficulties that rural residents have obtaining proper medical treatment, sending their children to school and receiving social security benefits.
The State Council carefully considered the comments and suggestions of the Standing Committee. Thanks to the concerted efforts of all sides, China's grain output steadily increased and rural per capita net income grew more than 6 percent per annum three years in a row. Rural infrastructure and rural working and living conditions also continued to improve. The building of a new socialist countryside is now well underway.
Oversight work was also focused on efforts to make China an innovative country. The Central Committee attaches great importance to scientific and technological progress and independent innovation. The State Council formulated the Outline of the National Long- and Medium-Term Program for Scientific and Technological Development. The Central Committee and the State Council held the National Conference on Science and Technology last year and introduced the goal of making China an innovative country by 2020. The Standing Committee investigated compliance with the Patent Law and heard, deliberated and approved work reports by the State Council on special subjects such as increasing the country's capacity for independent innovation and strengthening protection of intellectual property rights. Members of the Standing Committee made three proposals to address the problems of the weak contribution domestic advances in science and technology make to economic growth, the high reliance on foreign technology and the inadequate level of funding for R&D.
First, we need to integrate resources. We need to speed up development of a system for technological innovation in which enterprises play the leading role, the market plays a guiding role and enterprises, universities and research institutes work together. We need to initiate a beneficial cycle of capital and technology and accelerate the conversion of advances in science and technology into actual production to constantly increase the contribution domestic advances make to economic growth.
Second, we need to identify key areas. We need to focus on the main battleground of economic development, carefully decide which battles to fight and which not to fight, concentrate resources and increase funding for major projects of strategic importance to the overall situation, and encourage technological innovation through government policy to make breakthroughs in key areas and achieve leapfrog development.
Third, we should attach great importance to development of human resources. We need to create an excellent environment in which outstanding personnel can rise to the top and all personnel can fully play their parts by improving mechanisms and systems for developing and concentrating human resources and encouraging outstanding personnel. The State Council last year introduced fiscal, tax, financial and government procurement policies to encourage independent innovation and launched a group of key state science and technology projects affecting overall development. The Supreme People's Court reinforced judicial protection for intellectual property rights.
Oversight work was focused on building a conservation-minded and environmentally friendly society. On the basis of work carried out over the past few years, the Standing Committee strengthened follow-up and oversight work concerning resource and environmental issues.
First, while investigating compliance with the Law on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution, the Standing Committee followed up and investigated compliance with the Law on the Prevention and Control of Solid Waste Environmental Pollution and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution. The Committee listened to, deliberated and approved the reports of the State Council on the current state of China's waters and efforts to prevent and control water pollution. It also followed up and reported on progress in improving environmental conditions in key localities and enterprises through activities such as the China Environmental Protection Program.
Second, the Standing Committee investigated compliance with the Energy Conservation Law and listened to, deliberated and approved the report of the State Council on the work of rationally utilizing, protecting and managing mineral resources, focusing on improving energy conservation in industry and construction. Members of the Standing Committee pointed out that although the State Council and local governments adopted a series of measures and did a great deal of work, it is difficult to fundamentally solve the longstanding problems of an inefficient pattern of economic growth and an unfavorable economic structure in the short term, that it would be extremely difficult to meet the targets of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP in 2006 by 4 percent and reducing the emission of major pollutants by 2 percent, and that the task of building a conservation-minded and environmentally friendly society is daunting. We must truly change our approach to development, make innovations in our development model, improve the quality of development, make changing the pattern of economic growth a strategic focus, accelerate economic restructuring, put the focus of work on improving reserves, launch technological upgrading that gives high priority to saving energy, reducing consumption and protecting the environment, develop a circular economy, promote independent innovation and truly make economic and social development more scientific.
We focused oversight work on promoting justice in the judicial system. We have been using a combination of oversight means in recent years to urge responsible departments to solve problems such as overly long periods of detention, and promote improvements in local-level organizations, personnel and internal oversight in the court and procuratorial systems, and our efforts have produced results. Last year we investigated compliance with the Law on Judges and the Law on Public Procurators, and listened to, deliberated and approved reports from the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on the campaigns to standardize the actions of the courts and law enforcement. Over the last year or so the national court and procuratorial systems carried out special correction campaigns in accordance with the comments of the Standing Committee.
First, they addressed major problems that have aroused strong resentment among the people such as the difficulties of bringing lawsuits to court and ensuring that court decisions are carried out, and they did not try to avoid difficult issues and problems.
Second, they carried out a full review to remedy problems, starting with work positions and links where problems often occur. They carried out both rearrangements and corrections and tried to achieve substantive results.
Third, they paid particular attention to making institutional improvements and focused on setting up permanent mechanisms.
Fourth, they steadfastly made their actions more transparent by conscientiously accepting oversight by people's congresses and other sources.
The members of the Standing Committee recognize the achievements of the special correction campaigns and call on the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate to focus on the major problems uncovered in the correction campaigns, increase efforts to improve personnel, pay close attention to implementing systems, always stay open-minded and transparent, strengthen internal oversight, maintain strict accountability and continuously deepen correction activities on the basis of consolidation of the results already achieved.
We investigated compliance with the Law on the Autonomy of Ethnic Minority Areas and the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Returned Overseas Chinese and Their Relatives. This was the first time this has been done since the two laws were enacted, and this was a focus in the Standing Committee's oversight work last year. The system of autonomous ethnic minority areas is a basic political system of China. Since the Law on the Autonomy of Ethnic Minority Areas was first enacted over 20 years ago, it has effectively promoted economic and social development in ethnic minority areas, provided a guarantee for the democratic and political rights of ethnic minority groups and promoted constant strengthening and development of socialist ethnic relations of equality, unity, mutual assistance and harmony. However, economic and social development in ethnic minority areas has lagged behind that of the rest of the country for a variety of reasons and the task of alleviating poverty in those areas remains daunting. The Central Committee is very concerned about this problem, and General Secretary Hu Jintao issued important instructions calling on the Standing Committee to pay close attention to understanding the state of economic and social development in small population ethnic minority groups when investigating compliance with the law. The investigating group visited 11 provinces and autonomous regions and carried out a special investigation of conditions among 22 ethnic minority groups with small populations. The Standing Committee called on all local governments and government offices to strengthen their sense of responsibility and be more conscientious in carrying out the Law on the Autonomy of Ethnic Minority Areas, increase assistance to ethnic minority areas and groups, especially groups with small populations, promote economic and social development in ethnic minority areas and uphold and improve the system of autonomous ethnic minority areas.
The Standing Committee sent the group investigating compliance with the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Returned Overseas Chinese and Their Relatives to six provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. There they held forums for returned overseas Chinese and their relatives, overseas Chinese nationals, returned overseas Chinese deputies to people's congresses, members of the Returned Overseas Chinese Federation in the CPPCC and leaders of departments concerned with overseas Chinese affairs. They also visited some farms run by overseas Chinese, enterprises funded by overseas Chinese and the homes of some returned overseas Chinese, where they gathered a great deal of firsthand information. Through this investigation they learned that farms run by overseas Chinese face two types of difficulties. First, many of the farms are running in the red and are not able to pay wages, pensions, medical bills and social security contributions, and their employee wages are lower than the net incomes of local farmers. Second, a great number of structures are dilapidated and badly in need of repair, and there is a fair amount of outstanding debt owed on infrastructure such as transportation, water supply and electricity supply. In addressing these problems, the investigating group worked out a report and recommended, "All employee wages, pension payments, medical bills and social security contributions in arrears owed by farms run by overseas Chinese should be cleared up within two years. The problems of dilapidated structures, infrastructure development and land-use rights on these farms should be solved in three to five years." The State Council views this as an important issue, and set up a special study on promoting reform and development of such farms. Concerned departments of the State Council carefully carried out investigations and studies, took vigorous measures and diligently acted on the comments and suggestions of the Standing Committee, with good results.
One important power of the Standing Committee is the duty to oversee budgetary and economic work. The Standing Committee listened to, deliberated and approved the final budget of the central government, the auditing work report and the report on implementing the plan, and deliberated and approved the 2005 central government final budget. It also heard, deliberated and approved the report of the State Council on reforming state-owned commercial banks to convert them into stock companies and deepening reform of the financial system. Everyone on the Standing Committee expressed satisfaction with the implementation of the plan for national economic and social development and affirmed the public finance, banking and accounting work. In addition, a number of suggestions were introduced on how to standardize budget compilation work, improve the system of government transfer payments, strictly implement the budget, strengthen auditing oversight, resolutely curb overheated growth of investment, intensify efforts to save energy, lower consumption and protect the environment, and pay more attention to social development and solving problems to improve people's well-being. The State Council sent a report to the Standing Committee last December on the use of surplus revenue over the budget target and on progress in correcting problems uncovered in auditing.
The filing and inspection of regulatory documents is an important aspect of the oversight work of the Standing Committee. We carefully handle the suggestions of individuals and organizations that are made during inspection and conduct focused inspections on our own initiative to safeguard consistency in the country's legal system. The Standing Committee pays close attention to petitions submitted through letters and visits from the general public. More than 150,000 letters were received from the public in 2006 and over 75,000 visits were recorded. For problems that occurred frequently, such as legal and judicial issues, land expropriation and requisition, relocation of people to build reservoirs, housing demolition, medical care, education, social security and environmental protection, we increased efforts to refer problems to concerned organizations for them to address and followed up on how they were handled, urged these organizations to handle problems in accordance with the law and government policy, and helped solve some of the problems reflected in the letters and visits, thus playing a positive role in solving problems in society and promoting social harmony.
III. Work related to you reached a new high.
The Standing Committee conscientiously implemented the guiding principles of Decree No. 9 issued by the Central Committee in 2005 by formulating a set of regulations for supporting and ensuring the lawful execution of your duties. This will not only give more play to your role but also ensure that the work of the Standing Committee remains full of life.
1. We carefully handled your proposals. During the Fourth Session of the Tenth NPC last year, you submitted 1,006 bills and the presidium referred them to seven special committees for deliberation. The concerned special committees conducted in-depth investigations and listened to the opinions you expressed in letters, phone calls, personal visits or forums. Those of you responsible for submitting some proposals were also invited to participate in preparatory work, formulation and deliberation for the draft law related to the bill they submitted. For example, the revised Law on the Protection of Minors incorporated your comments such as how to keep harmful information on the Internet away from minors, how to protect the legitimate rights and interests of rural children left behind when their parents go to the city to work and how to improve the safety of school grounds. Many of the 1,006 bills aided in formulation of legislation. Ten laws were deliberated and passed by the Standing Committee related to 100 of the bills, 7 draft laws related to 26 bills were submitted to the Standing Committee for deliberation, and another 51 legislative items related to 358 bills were included in the schedule for legislation work or the annual plan. Some other bills were referred to the State Council for study in order to formulate related administrative regulations. Explanations were made about your bills that called for legislation where conditions are not yet ripe. The reports submitted by relevant special committees on the results of their deliberation of your bills were deliberated and approved at the meeting of the Standing Committee and printed and distributed to all of you.
2. We actively dealt with your suggestions. During the Fourth Session of the Tenth NPC you submitted 6,511 suggestions, and these were referred to 174 organizations to study and process. With the concerted efforts of everyone involved, 1,810 or 28 percent of the problems reflected in your suggestions have already been solved or are being addressed, and solutions have been found or work plans drawn up for 3,148 problems, or 48 percent of the total. Both figures were higher than the previous year. All the organizations processing the suggestions placed great value on the work. Even their top leaders became personally involved, maintained good communications with you and, strengthened their follow-up efforts. The Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and 12 departments of the State Council, including the National Development and Reform Commission, reported to the Standing Committee in writing on the handling of your suggestions. Last year the Ministry of Water Resources handled all the 194 suggestions it was given and wrote a reply to you for each and every one of them. Working with other relevant departments, the Ministry of Water Resources did a great deal of work to solve the problem of inadequate safe water supplies in the dry rural areas of central Ningxia, a problem raised by the region's delegation of NPC deputies. The Ministry set up a special fund for water to meet the emergency needs during the drought and to ensure safe water supplies for 250,000 local people and made plans to develop enough safe water supplies within three years or so to basically solve the problem of inadequate safe water supply for 540,000 rural residents in Ningxia. The Ministry formulated a plan to solve the problem raised by the Macao delegation concerning the effect of the salt tide on water supplies in the region. Beginning last September, emergency measures have been taken to curb the salt tide during the dry season to ensure that Macao residents can drink clean water.
3. We expanded your participation in the activities of the Standing Committee. The number of NPC deputies invited to the meetings of the Standing Committee as non-voting participants increased from 140-some to 185, and the number of deputies who participated in law compliance inspections and legislation-related investigations rose from nearly 400 to more than 500. Agendas, relevant documents and reference materials for the meetings were sent to the non-voting deputies in a timely manner. The Standing Committee held a forum for invited deputies before it met to brief them on its work, explain bills and listen to the comments and suggestions of the deputies concerning its work. Those of you who were invited to attend meetings and participate in activities carefully prepared before the events and were enthusiastic about speaking at the meetings, greatly contributing to the Standing Committee's work.
4. We improved the organization of activities and services for you. We improved organization and services for your investigations and studies on special topics. You were free to form investigating groups on your own, chose your topics based on actual conditions, much better focused your investigations and studies and made them much more effective. All this played an important role in raising the quality of your bills and proposals. Statistics show that 1, 874 of you, 63 percent of all NPC deputies, participated in special topic investigations and studies last year, nearly 10 percentage points higher than the previous year, and your investigations resulted in 183 reports. We organized you on inspection tours centered on the building of a harmonious socialist society and arranged for those of you representing Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to make inspection and research tours in Anhui, Hubei, Xinjiang and Jiangsu. We held five training sessions attended by more than 400 of you to study and discuss issues such as how to protect resources and the environment, how to build a new socialist countryside and how to make China an innovative country. Each standing committee of the people's congresses of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government set up a liaison office for you, further improving the level of service for you.
IV. Our foreign exchange work entered a new phase.
Foreign exchange work of the NPC is an important part of the country's overall diplomatic work and plays an important role in enhancing mutual understanding, strengthening mutual trust in the political arena and promoting mutually beneficial cooperation. Last year we received 90 delegations from 56 countries, and missions headed by members of our Chairperson's Council visited 30 countries and regions.
Setting up mechanisms for regular exchanges with the parliaments or congresses of other countries is an important NPC measure that helps maintain the continuity and stability of our foreign exchange work and makes the work more productive. Significant progress was made in setting up such mechanisms last year.
First, on the basis of the mechanisms we had established for regular exchanges with the parliaments or congresses of eight countries, including Russia and the United States, as well as with the European Parliament over the previous few years, we set up last year mechanisms at different levels for exchanges with the parliaments or congresses of South Africa, the Republic of Korea, India, Australia, Egypt, Brazil and Chile as well as the Japanese Diet. A basic pattern for such mechanisms has now been established.
Second, the cooperation council composed of members of the Standing Committee and the Russian Federation Council and the cooperation council composed of members of the Standing Committee and the State Duma of Russia held their first meeting. A fresh round of talks was held separately by members of the Standing Committee with members of the US Senate and with members of the US House of Representatives. The NPC held its twenty-third regular meeting with the European Parliament. The cooperation council composed of members of the Standing Committee and the Japanese House of Councilors held its second meeting. The NPC's exchanges with the parliaments of France, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries proceeded smoothly. During the exchanges, the two sides conducted a thorough exchange of views on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues of common concern, drew up general plans for multilevel exchanges and cooperation in various areas, and discussed ways and means to promote cooperation in practical matters. They deepened their exchanges under their mechanism for regular exchanges. All this has injected fresh vitality into the development of state-to-state relations and expanded the scope of topics discussed and areas of cooperation.
Friendly relations with the parliaments or congresses of neighboring countries were strengthened, friendly cooperation with the parliaments or congresses of developing countries was strengthened, and good progress was made in exchanges in the areas of legislation and oversight. A roundtable meeting of the Chinese and Russian legislative bodies was staged by the NPC and the Russian Federation Council in Harbin last September as an important activity in China's Year of Russia. At the meeting, the two sides clarified the focus and forms of their cooperation under the new circumstances. During its exchanges with foreign countries, the Standing Committee adapted its means of communication to suit the target audience and used a large quantity of information and data to widely publicize China's domestic and foreign policies and thoroughly explain to the world the country's commitment to a path of peaceful development and its dedication to building a harmonious world. The Standing Committee also thoroughly and carefully addressed the questions of Taiwan and Tibet. All this enhanced understanding and acceptance of China's domestic and foreign policies among the parliaments, congresses and governments and among the legislators and ordinary people of other countries.
We actively participated in the multilateral activities of international and regional parliamentary organizations such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Asian Parliament Assembly, the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, the Latin American Parliament, the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Pacific Islands Forum, and worked with these organizations to safeguard the rights and interests of developing countries. We attended the first speakers' meeting of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, held in Moscow last May, where we raised three proposals. One was to work for cooperation between parliaments under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, another was to focus on promoting cooperation among all member states in practical issues in all areas including the fight against violent terrorist forces, ethnic separatist forces and religious extremist forces, and a third was to adopt a variety of flexible means for cooperation at regular or irregular intervals. The proposals received widespread approval from the participants and exerted a positive influence on the development of multilateral cooperation among parliaments and congresses.
The Standing Committee last year ratified 18 treaties and agreements China concluded with foreign states and approved the country's accession into 3 international conventions. It also made decisions on and approved the appointment and removal of a number of employees in Chinese state organs.
The Standing Committee paid close attention to self-improvement. Its members earnestly studied Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents and gained a thorough understanding of major strategic concepts such as the Scientific Outlook on Development and the building of a harmonious socialist society. Lectures on special topics related to the work of the Standing Committee were organized for their members to constantly improve their knowledge of the law and modern science and culture and help them improve their ability to perform their functions in accordance with the law. We improved the system for releasing information through the news media, successfully ran the NPC website and a television program on the law, and began live television coverage of meetings of the Standing Committee on the Internet, all of which made our work more transparent. Organs of the Standing Committee implemented the Civil Service Law, launched an education campaign to foster the socialist concept of honor and disgrace among its employees, stepped up efforts to improve the overall quality of their cadres, and constantly worked to consolidate and enlarge on the results of the education campaign to preserve the advanced nature of Party members. This improved our service attitude as well as the quality of our work.
Fellow Deputies,
Ever since this NPC was elected, you have been carrying the great trust of the people of all our ethnic groups, maintaining a high sense of responsibility toward the Party, the country and the people, and working conscientiously and wholeheartedly to fulfill your duties. You deliberated and approved bills, were active in submitting bills and proposals, enthusiastically participated in activities of the Standing Committee and strongly supported its work, thus making important contributions to efforts to improve the work of the NPC, uphold and improve the system of people's congresses, build a moderately prosperous society in all respects and create a harmonious socialist society.
Under the leadership of their respective Party committees, local people's congresses at all levels and their standing committees performed their duties in accordance with the law and made outstanding achievements in all their work. In addition, they did a great deal to assist the Standing Committee in carrying out inspections of compliance with the law and investigations related to legislation and in effectively serving you and carrying out foreign exchange work, as well as made important contributions to joint efforts to improve socialist democracy and the socialist legal system.
The special committees of the NPC attached great importance to self-improvement efforts, took full advantage of the skills, rich experience and other traits and strengths of their members, thoroughly studied issues, supported each other, coordinated their actions, worked hard and played an important role in improving the quality of the work of the NPC and its Standing Committee.
Fellow Deputies,
Under the leadership of the Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary, the Standing Committee made further advances in all fields of endeavor. These achievements were the result of your hard work and that of members of the Standing Committee, special committees and organs of the NPC, aided by the close cooperation of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the strong support of local people's congresses at all levels and their standing committees and the general public. On behalf of the Standing Committee, I would now like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you who contributed to this success.
In reviewing the work of the Standing Committee of the past year, we can clearly see that there are still some shortcomings. Better coordination is needed in some important issues in legislative work, oversight work needs to be made more focused and effective, the quality of the handling of deputy bills and proposals needs to be further improved, and the means and mechanisms for doing work related to you need to be further improved. We must pay close attention to these problems and adopt effective measures to address them.
Major Tasks for This Year
The current NPC, together with its Standing Committee, will complete its term of office in 2007. The Seventeenth National Congress of the Party will be held this year, and our many tasks for the year will be arduous. The general requirements for the work of the Standing Committee are as follows: We must take Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as our guide, fully put into practice the Scientific Outlook on Development and diligently follow the guiding principles set out at the Sixteenth National Congress of the Party and at the third through sixth plenary sessions of the Sixteenth Central Committee. We must uphold the organic unity of the leadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country and the running of the government according to the rule of law, uphold and improve the system of people's congresses, focus on the overall work of the Party and the government in carrying out our duties, strive to meet the objectives of all tasks of the current NPC and continue to contribute to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and creating a harmonious socialist society. To satisfy these requirements, we must work even harder and build on the foundation of our work of the last four years to do honor to our mission and successfully complete all our work for this year.
I. We will strengthen social legislation and ensure that the goals for legislation are met.
The current NPC and its Standing Committee set as its goal for legislation to basically complete establishment of a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, focusing on improving the quality of legislation, and formulated a five-year legislation program to meet that goal. Over the last four years we passed amendments to the Constitution, promulgated and implemented the Anti-Secession Law, and formulated or revised 70 laws and made interpretations of or legal decisions concerning legal issues, resulting in the completion of a number of legislative items that were fundamental in nature, were urgently needed and for which conditions were ripe, thereby making very good progress in legislative work. At its Sixth Plenary Session the Sixteenth Central Committee clearly called for improving legislation to develop democratic politics, guarantee the rights of citizens, promote social programs, strengthen the social safety net, standardize people's organizations and improve public administration. This made new demands on the NPC's legislative work. While continuing work to improve economic legislation, we must also concentrate on strengthening legislation related to social programs to provide powerful legal guarantees for the building of a harmonious socialist society and to ensure attainment of the legislative goal of the current NPC.
The main legislative tasks we plan to accomplish this year include enactment of the Law on Labor Contracts, the Employment Promotion Law, the Social Security Law, the Law on Mediation and Arbitration of Labor Disputes, the Law on Administrative Decrees, the Law on Response to Emergencies, the Antitrust Law, the Law on State-Owned Assets, the Law to Combat Illegal Drugs, the Law to Curb Illegal Activities, the Law on Urban and Rural Planning, and the Circular Economy Law, as well as revision to the Law on Scientific and Technological Progress, the Civil Procedure Law, the Criminal Procedure Law, the Law on Food Hygiene, the Law on Energy Conservation and the Law on Attorneys. All concerned organizations should take into consideration the requirements of the assigned tasks, their responsibilities, time constraints and organization in carrying out these legislative projects, promptly work out ways to address major issues and ensure that bills are submitted for deliberation on schedule. The Standing Committee will strengthen organizational leadership, give full play to the role of the NPC special committees, strictly control legislation quality and ensure smooth progress in legislative work. It will also urge concerned organizations to promptly draw up supporting regulations for existing laws that require them and try to ensure that they are drawn up when bills are being formulated or deliberated so that they can be introduced soon after a bill becomes law. Preparations should be made for the five-year plan for legislation of the next NPC.
Making sure that legislative work is carried out in a scientific and democratic manner is an internal requirement for raising legislation quality, so we must satisfy this requirement throughout the legislation process. In addition to soliciting written opinions on bills, we will conduct special research projects and hold forums and debates to directly solicit your opinions and those from all sectors of society. We will publish the entire texts of bills that have a bearing on the vital interests of the people in order to obtain a wide range of opinions. We will hold debates and hearings to carry out in-depth deliberations for highly technical or controversial bills. We will solicit opinions as extensively as possible so that the laws we enact fully express the common wishes of the people and thus ensure that they can be fully implemented.
China is now in a critical period for reform and development, in which China's economic system and social structure, the interests of different sectors of society and people's thinking and concepts are all changing profoundly. These unprecedented social changes provide very strong vitality for China's development, but they inevitably create a wide variety of conflicts and problems as well. We must always adhere to the correct political orientation, put people first, proceed from China's actual conditions and realities and follow the mass line in legislative work. We must have a good understanding of the objective laws governing reform, opening up and socialist modernization, obtain a deep understanding of the characteristics of the current stage of China's economic and social development, and give due consideration to the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, the current common interests of the people and the special interests of different groups in society. We need to concentrate on passing legislation urgently needed to solve practical problems in daily life. We need to strike a balance between stability of the law and the need to adapt to changes and make sure that laws are both progressive and practicable so that the law can fully play its proper role in standardizing and guiding the functioning of society and guaranteeing success in building a harmonious socialist society.
II. We will implement the Oversight Law and make oversight work more effective.
The Standing Committee actively explored ways to strengthen and improve the oversight work of the NPC over the last four years, following an approach to oversight work that requires concentrating on the core tasks, identifying priorities and striving for substantive results. It listened to, deliberated and approved 44 special reports on the work of the central government, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate and investigated compliance with 21 laws. Through the oversight work of the NPC, solutions were found to some longstanding problems affecting the overall interests of the country, thus ensuring correct implementation of the laws, promoting government administration in accordance with the law, ensuring justice in the judicial system and safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of the people.
This year is the first year for the implementation of the Oversight Law. We will take the implementation of this law as a fulcrum for efforts to strengthen and improve oversight, standardize the forms of oversight to comply with the law and strictly follow the procedures defined in the law in order to exercise more effective oversight and raise the oversight work of the Standing Committee to a new level. We plan to investigate compliance with the law in three areas and listen to and deliberate nine special work reports during the year.
First, we will listen to and deliberate the State Council's reports on building a new socialist countryside, conserving energy and protecting the environment.
Second, we will listen to and deliberate the State Council's reports on reforming the urban and rural medical and health care systems, tightening oversight of food and drug safety and safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of workers, and investigate compliance with the Compulsory Education Law.
Third, we will listen to and deliberate reports by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on improving the systems for trial oversight and oversight over procuratorial work. We will monitor how well the opinions contained in the reports on compliance with the Law on Judges and the Law on Public Procurators have been implemented.
Fourth, we will listen to and deliberate the State Council's reports on work related to overseas Chinese and on protecting the lawful rights and interests of Taiwan compatriots investing in the mainland. We will monitor implementation of the opinions contained in the reports on compliance with the Law on the Autonomy of Ethnic Minority Areas, and monitor progress in formulating related supporting rules and regulations.
We will strengthen oversight of budget implementation and economic work. We will listen to and deliberate the State Council' s report on the final accounts of the central government and corresponding auditing report for 2006, and report on standardizing government transfer payments. We will call on all concerned departments to balance their budgets, ensure that key expenditures are properly funded, properly handle surplus revenue over the budget target, standardize transfer payments and improve outstanding balance management for the national debt. We will support the auditing authorities in performing their duties in accordance with the law and urge concerned departments to address or correct any problem uncovered in the audit. We will listen to and deliberate the State Council's report on the implementation of the plan for economic and social development and increase monitoring and analysis of the performance of the economy to promote sound and fast development of the Chinese economy.
In accordance with related provisions of the Oversight Law, we will improve the filing and inspection of administrative regulations, local regulations, legal interpretation documents and other regulatory documents. We will conduct focused inspections of regulatory documents on our own initiative to effectively safeguard the uniformity and authority of the country's legal system. We will improve handling of people's petitions delivered via letters and visits. We will carry out an overall analysis of such petitions and urge the relevant offices to find effective solutions to serious problems that are reflected in many petitions and evoke a strong reaction from the people in order to resolve conflicts at the local level in the place where they arise.
The Standing Committee will be more conscientious in subjecting itself to oversight by you and the people. It will use a variety of means, including printed bulletins, press conferences, interviews and the Internet, to inform you and the public about its work. The information released will include the annual plan for oversight work, reports on compliance with the laws and comments on those reports, as well as work reports delivered to the Standing Committee, the Committee's comments on those work reports and the responses to its comments from the central government, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. The Standing Committee will carefully listen to your and other people's comments and suggestions concerning its work to improve its performance under this oversight.
The most fundamental requirement for successful implementation of the Law on Oversight and effective oversight of people's congresses is to organically combine the leadership of the Party, the people's position as the masters of the country and the running of the government according to the rule of law.
First, we must uphold the Party's leadership. The CPC is the leadership core for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Upholding the Party's leadership is a basic prerequisite and fundamental guarantee for success in the work of people's congresses. All the work of people's congresses must contribute to improving the Party's leadership, consolidating the Party's position as the governing party and ensuring implementation of the Party's line, principles and policies.
Second, we must properly handle the relationship between people 's congresses on the one hand and the people's governments, the people's courts and the people's procuratorates on the other. Overseeing the work of the people's governments, the people's courts and the people's procuratorates is one of the major powers granted to people's congresses in the Constitution and other laws. The oversight by people's congresses is oversight with the force of law carried out on behalf of the state and the people. Deputies to people's congresses must exercise their oversight power conscientiously, act in accordance with the law and prescribed procedures, uphold democratic centralism, exercise power collectively and decide on issues collectively. People's congresses are organs of state power that do not exercise administrative, judicial or procuratorial power in their oversight work. They coordinate the work of other organs of the state in the independent performance of their duties and responsibilities in accordance with the law and under the unified leadership of the Party.
Third, we must concentrate on the core tasks, identify priorities and strive for substantive results. The oversight work of people's congresses must all be closely related to the overall work of the Party and the government, and oversight efforts should be focused on issues that are of vital importance to overall reform, development and stability, draw wide public attention or affect social harmony. A combination of forms of oversight should be applied to resolve problems that are widespread or that indicate an unhealthy trend. People's congresses should constantly work to make their oversight work more focused and effective.
III. We will improve the quality of our work related to you and get you to fully play your role.
This Standing Committee attaches great importance to its work related to you. We have done a great deal of work over the past few years in giving you a greater role to play and improving the system of the Standing Committee in accordance with the guiding principles set out in Document No. 9 of the Central Committee. To date we have handled 2,976 bills and 23,232 proposals from you, issued more than 2,000 invitations to you to attend meetings of the Standing Committee, organized inspection tours and special research projects involving nearly ten thousand of you, and prepared 12 work-related documents. We greatly increased efforts to serve you well and gave you a bigger role to play. We will continue to follow the guiding principles set out in Document No. 9 during the new year, strive to improve the quality of our work related to you, get you to play a bigger role, and make continued progress in the work of the NPC.
We will further expand channels through which you interact with the people. We will support your active participation in activities organized by the bodies that selected you, improve the way activities for teams of deputies are organized, and increase contact and communication between you and deputies to local people 's congresses at all levels. We will arrange more inspection tours and special research projects for you to help you maintain close contact with the people, fully understand the conditions of the people, fully reflect popular sentiment and pool the wisdom of a wide range of people.
We will further strengthen your role in legislation and oversight work. The Standing Committee will take into full consideration your bills and proposals when planning legislation and oversight work and working out meeting agendas. More of you who submit proposals or suggestions will be invited to participate in the drafting and deliberation of relevant bills and in inspections of compliance with the law, and we will fully take your proposals and suggestions into consideration. We will continue to improve the mechanism for having you attend meetings of the Standing Committee as non-voting participants. In accordance with the agenda of the meeting and your wishes, the Standing Committee will invite those of you who are familiar with the topic under discussion or are involved with the concerned area, especially deputies to people's congresses at lower levels, to attend meetings of the Standing Committee as non-voting participants. The Standing Committee should give full consideration to the comments and suggestions of these participants.
We will do even more to serve you well. Modern Internet technology will be fully utilized to keep you better informed about state affairs and developments and provide you with more information. We will give more training to you, carefully review your experience in performing your duties in accordance with the law and improve measures to ensure that you are able to play your role. The liaison office of the NPC will improve its work by providing careful and considerate service to you when the NPC is in recess.
Fellow Deputies,
Election of deputies to people's congresses is a matter of great importance in the improvement of China's socialist democratic politics. Starting in July of last year, new people's congresses at the county and township levels across the country will be elected at the same time in accordance with the provision of the amendment to the Constitution changing the term of township people's congresses from three years to five years. This change affects 900 million voters for more than 30,000 county and township people's congresses. All local governments are paying pay very close attention to this work, diligently following the arrangements of the Central Committee, and steadfastly acting in accordance with the law. The election of the new county and township people's congresses is proceeding smoothly. The election of new people's congresses at the level of cities divided into districts, autonomous prefectures, provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government will also be taking place during the second half of this year. A decision will be made at this session concerning the election of deputies to the Eleventh NPC and matters related to the election will be put on the agenda. Successfully carrying out elections of deputies to people's congresses is an important task for people's congresses at all levels and their standing committees. We must uphold the leadership of the Party, strongly advocate democracy, act strictly in accordance with the law and elect outstanding people who strictly obey the Constitution and other laws, maintain close ties with the masses, work hard to serve the people and enjoy their trust as deputies to people's congresses at all levels. This will provide a solid organizational guarantee for upholding and improving the system of people's congresses and bringing about a new phase in the work of people's congresses.
We need to actively carry out the foreign exchange work of the NPC this year in accordance with the basic principles and overall arrangements for China's foreign relations work. We need to carry out extensive exchange and cooperation activities with other parliaments and congresses, actively participate in Russia's Year of China activities and continue to fully play our role in international and regional parliamentary organizations, focusing on strengthening and improving the mechanism for regular exchanges with other parliaments and congresses, in order to create an excellent international environment for peaceful development and make our due contribution to promoting the development of a harmonious world.
We will continue to intensify the Standing Committee's self- improvement efforts. We need to firmly establish the concept of giving high priority to the Party, the overall situation, the people, democracy and the legal system, work more resolutely and conscientiously to uphold and improve the system of people's congresses, and constantly increase our ability to carry out our duties in accordance with the law and improve our actual performance in doing so. We will carry out extensive investigations and studies, diligently review our actual experience and widely publicize the work of the NPC. We will vigorously implement the fifth five-year plan to increase public awareness of the law in order to increase understanding of the legal system among the general public. We will continue to strengthen contacts with local people's congresses and work with them to improve socialist democracy and the socialist legal system. The organs of the Standing Committee should intensify all aspects of their self-improvement efforts, focusing on improving the political standards and professional skills of their cadres to more fully play their role as a collective adviser and assistant to the Standing Committee and their role in providing services to you.
Fellow Deputies,
Let us rally closely around the Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary, hold high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents, fully put into practice the Scientific Outlook on Development, and demonstrate strong political fervor, be in excellent spirits and make outstanding achievements in our work to welcome a successful convening of the Seventeenth National Party Congress!
(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2007)