China's top legislature will give interpretations on Annex I and
Annex II of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region (HKSAR) in its next meeting from April 2 to 6.
A meeting of the National
People's Congress Standing Committee chairman and vice chairmen
held in Beijing on Friday set the schedule for the
upcoming meeting.
The members of the NPC Standing Committee will deliberate the draft
of interpretations on Article 7 of Annex I and Article 3 of Annex
II of the Basic Law, involving Hong Kong's political development
after 2007, suggested by the meeting of chairman and vice
chairmen.
The meeting decided that the draft will also be presented to the
Committee for the Basic Law of HKSAR under the NPC Standing
Committee for consultation in accordance with the relevant
provisions of the Basic Law of HKSAR.
The chairmen's meeting also decided on other items of the agenda
for the scheduled meeting, which included:
-- first considering the draft amendment to the law governing
prevention and control of infectious diseases, the draft law
concerning online signatures, and the draft amendment to the system
of participation of the people's assessor.
-- considering the draft amendment to the foreign trade law for the
third time.
-- hearing a State Council report on the establishment and
improvement of the national quick response mechanism to deal with
public health emergencies.
-- considering a report on the inspection of law enforcement on
scientific and technological progress.
Today's meeting also passed the main arrangements of the Standing
Committee's work in 2004, the plan of inspections on the law
enforcement and ten work reports of the State Council, the Supreme
People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
Legislation is still the top priority on the list of the Standing
Committee, which plans to examine 20 draft laws in 2004.
It also has made arrangements on publicizing the amended
Constitution and on the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the
founding of the National People's Congress.
The law enforcement inspections planned by the meeting include the
laws on land management, animal epidemic prevention, compulsory
education, trade unions and statistics in 2004.
(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2004)