-Annual Session to begins from today
-Members will discuss issues ranging from economics, religion to sport, health and foreign affairs
From Our
Correspondent
BEIJING: China’ s top legislative bodies, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC) began their annual meeting here on Thursday with a heavy agenda of national development.
The two Houses will wrap up on March 11. The annual gatherings of CPPCC and NPC are a window on the central government’s priorities and plans for the coming year. Members will discuss issues ranging from economics and religion to sport, health and foreign affairs. Various committees will then put together proposals for the government to consider.
One of NPC’s tasks this year is to pass the final version of China’s 14th five-year plan, which gives the leadership a chance to outline longer-term priorities.
Notably, the latest five-year plan will be the first to dedicate a specific chapter to technology, framing self-sufficiency in technology as a major pillar of China’s economic development and marking a shift in priorities towards industrial and national security as well as reduced tech imports.
Much attention is also expected to be paid to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an international cooperation platform for common development that has brought tangible benefits to many other countries since 2013.
The 14th five-year plan will also be instructive for China’s future environmental policies. Experts worldwide are following closely China’s annual Two Sessions, a window to help them understand where the world’s second largest economy is heading and what it means to the world.
The upcoming two sessions would be an important event to brainstorm new ideas which would further promote the prosperity and development of China and bring the nation a step closer to achieving its two centenary goals.
The formal annual session of China’s national legislature will open on Friday morning in Beijing, a spokesperson said Thursday.
The fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) is scheduled to conclude on March 11, with 10 items on the agenda, Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for the session, told a press conference.
Lawmakers will deliberate documents including the government work report and the draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for national economic and social development and the long-range objectives through the year 2035, Zhang said.
They will also deliberate a draft NPC decision on improving the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as well as draft amendments to the organic law and procedural rules of the NPC, Zhang said.
Press conferences, press briefings and interviews of deputies and ministers will be held during the session via video link, he said.
