As China's two annual legislative and advisory sessions proceed in full swing this week there seems to be a race to register internet domain names relating to the meetings, the Beijing News reported Wednesday.

Domain names, such as "11-5.com.cn," referring to the country's new 11th Five-Year Development Guidelines and "lianghui.cn" relate to the ongoing annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the paper said.

Lianghui literally means 'the two meetings' and how the people in China refer the concurrently held assemblies.

The domain name "11-5.com.cn" could fetch as much 5 million yuan (about US$620,000) if the registered owner were to sell it, said the report.

Flashy, easy-to-remember internet names that bring high clicks rates have a lot of business potential. Those who register such domain names make their money by selling them to others, industry insiders said.

The registration of domain names using the terms related to the annual legislative and advisory sessions is legal as there are no regulations which ban such registration, according to the newspaper's sources.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2006)