The annual session of the National People's Congress held its preparatory meeting Thursday, electing a 175-member presidium and agreeing on the agenda for the next 10 days. Key issues expected to be discussed and addressed at the session are as follows:

Human-based development

The Communist Party of China (CPC) established a new approach to development late last year, highlighting human-based, all-round, coordinated and sustainable development. The promulgation of such laws as administrative permit law and the law on identification card, the abolishment of vagrant collecting and sending-back system, the clear-up of over-detention cases are all viewed as part of the new approach. It is widely believed that the human-based government administration will be brought up in this year's governmental work.

Macroeconomic control

China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew an awesome 9.1 percent in 2003, averaging more than US$1,000 on the per capita basis for the first time in history. It is generally acknowledged that the development of iron and steel, cement and other materials sectors is overheated and the economic development is being bottlenecked by energy and transport. The government is expected to announce new macroeconomic control measures that will help prevent inflation and financial risks, curtail blind investment and low-level duplicated construction projects so as to ensure a steady growth of the national economy.

Agriculture, farmers and rural economy

About 98 percent of the people show concern over the problems of agriculture, farmers and the rural economy, according to a survey conducted by Xinhuanet.com, China's biggest news website. How to ensure food security and raise farmers' income has become a top concern of the Chinese government. According to the "No. 1 Document" issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council at the beginning of the year, the Chinese government will encourage grain production, cut agricultural taxes and fees for the 900 million farmers and increase investment in agricultural infrastructure construction and protect the arable land.

Employment and social security

China's registered unemployment rate in cities was 4.3 percent at the end of last year. About 2.6 million workers had been laid off by state-owned enterprises, waiting for re-employment. This, plus the huge army of farmers flocking to cities in quest for jobs, has brought greater pressure to bear upon the government. The Chinese government is expected to adopt a variety of measures to develop labor-intensive industries to ease employment pressure and strive to bring the social security system to perfection.

Balanced development

The growing disparities between the country's rich eastern coastal area and the poor western area have gone to an alarming proportion. Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to expound his approach on how to rejuvenate the old northeast China industrial bases and forge ahead with the western China development drive.

Private property

No hitch is expected to write the protection of private property into the country's Constitution at the current session. While stressing the right to private property and the right to inherit private property, the draft amendments to the Constitution also provide the right of the government to requisition by law private property on the compensatory basis.

Human rights

The Chinese Constitution will, for the first time, have such terms as "respecting and protecting human rights" and that will be conducive to the further development of human rights in China.

Three Represents

The Constitution will also establish the important thinking of "Three Represents" advanced by Jiang Zemin (The Communist Party of China must represent the development requirements of China's advanced social productive forces, the progressive course of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people) as the guiding thinking for China.

Government building

The government will intensify the four basic functions: macroeconomic control, market regulation, social management and public service. In view of the painful lessons from SARS spread in 2003, the government is expected to give priority to the improvement of the emergency mechanism to cope with all kinds of breaking events. The government will also stress the supervisory roles of the news media.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2004)