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)