The press center for the forthcoming annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was put into operation Thursday.

The press center, which is located in the Media Center Hotel, will serve correspondents from home and abroad and assist them with their journalistic activities relating to the NPC and CPPCC sessions.

The press center has opened three special desks for receiving reporters from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and foreign countries.

Reporters who want to cover the sessions can send their applications via the internet as the press center has established home-pages for the two sessions, respectively.

After the arrival of NPC deputies and CPPCC members in Beijing, the press center will publish their lodging places and the way to contact the liaison persons, according to an official of the press center.

It will also provide the reporters with documents and files, publish agendas of the sessions, help them attend press conferences and group interviews, and arrange meetings between reporters and NPC deputies and CPPCC members.

The Second Sessions of the Eleventh NPC and the Eleventh CPPCC National Committee are scheduled to open on March 5 and March 3, respectively.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2009)