At the preparatory meeting for the congress, which was chaired by Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin, the participants decided on Vice-President Hu Jintao as congress secretary-general.

The gathering also saw the approval of the major agenda for the congress. During the congress, delegates are expected to elect members for the 16th CPC Central Committee, as well as members for the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Also on the discussion table will be the review and deliberation of an amendment to the Party's constitution and a report by the 15th CPC Central Committee, in addition to a discipline commission report.

The elected presidium convened for its first meeting yesterday afternoon, voting for a 32-member standing committee, which included General Secretary Jiang Zemin.

The meeting also saw the election of Ding Guangen, Luo Gan, Zeng Qinghong and Wang Gang as deputy secretaries-general for the congress.

The presidium approved an examination report on the qualification of delegates from the 16th Party Congress's Credentials Committee.

According to the report, the number of the delegates allowed at the congress is 2,120, which is distributed to a variety of work units across the nation. But the actual number of delegates to be present is 2,114, as two people have died, two others have resigned and another two have been stripped of their qualifications, the report said.

The delegates cover a wide range of public interests with leading cadres at all levels accounting for 75.7 percent, or 1,600 of those in attendance. The rest are workers and others from grassroots levels.

There are 382 women delegates, accounting for 18.1 percent of the total, 0.6 percentage points higher than the proportion of women members in the Party. Delegates from ethnic minority groups number 230, taking up 10.9 percent of the total.

Yesterday's meeting also approved a draft proposal on election procedures for the 16th congress. It will be submitted to the delegates for review.

(China Daily November 8, 2002)