No sooner had NPC deputies put down their luggage before they
set about surfing the net for materials and writing bills and
proposals to be tabled for discussion at the annual NPC session
scheduled to open Friday.
"I have prepared bills on protecting the legitimate rights and
interests of peasant-workers in cities," said Jiang Deming, a
deputy from east China's Jiangsu Province. "I was appalled to learn
that peasant-workers could not get their due salaries and were
unable to return home for the traditional Chinese New Year."
It seems that the problems with farmers, rural economy and
agriculture have the most extensive concern at the NPC annual
session.
"Although the government has done a lot toward in this regard,”
said Wan Longjun from Guizhou Province. "it has been slow to put
the policies in place and more farmers have cherished enormous
expectation of the NPC session. I will advance a proposal to speed
up the implementation of agricultural tax reduction and
exemption."
With the arrival of the NPC delegation from the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region on the evening of March 2, all the 35
delegations have arrived. By 10 pm Tuesday, 2,960 deputies to the
National People's Congress (NPC), the highest legislature in China,
had registered for the session.
The Great Hall of the People, the main venue of the NPC session,
has prepared 12 check-in machines. In the southern lounge, there
are 15 touch-screen computers and 24 table PCs for NPC deputies to
search information. The Xinhuanet.com, the People's Net and the
China Net have provided 12 table PCs for deputies to surf the
Internet in a corner of the Southern Lounge of the hall.
Simultaneous translation facilities have been put in place,
ready to serve deputies of minority nationalities and all the major
documents have been rendered into minority languages and a number
of foreign languages for handing out to foreign news reporters.
The annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference is scheduled to open
Wednesday afternoon.
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2004)
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