Jiang Chunyun, a vice-chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, has urged that the rule of law be applied in the course of developing China's economically-backward western region.

Jiang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the call Thursday at a forum on the relationship between the rule of law and the development of the west.

The workshop was held in Chongqing Municipality, in southwest China, and attended by leaders of standing committees of provincial-level people's congresses from western areas.

In his speech, Jiang hailed the strategy to development the western region as a major decision for the new century made by the central authorities. The implementation of the strategy demands to strengthen the legal system in the west, he stressed.

The advocacy of the rule of law in developing the west meets the requirements for the development of China's socialist market economy and is a must for complying to the trends of economic globalization, Jiang noted.

He said that China's existing laws provide the basic legal support for the strategy, but new laws and revisions of some former ones are needed according to local conditions.

Some of the laws have to be made by the central legislature while some are to be stipulated by local legislatures, he said.

(Xinhua)