Photo taken on Feb. 27, 2018 shows the press center for the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) and the first session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), in Beijing, capital of China. The press center opened for work on Tuesday. The first annual session of the 13th NPC, the country's top legislature, will open on March 5 in Beijing. The first session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC, the top political advisory body, will open on March 3. (Xinhua/Li Xin) 

Every nation has that time of year when plans for its future are publicly revealed for the first time. 

In monarchical British Commonwealth Westminster-style parliaments it's the annual Monarch's Speech and Budget Address. In most North and South American republican nations, it's a State of the Union Address. And almost everywhere, by whatever name, it signals the start of a new parliamentary year.

In China, the equivalent is the annual 'Two Sessions' when the National People's Congress (NPC) – the top legislative body – and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – the top political advisory body – meet to make and take decisions that will spell out the official Line of March on critical issues of national and global importance.

Near 3000 lawmakers who will be meeting for their first plenary session of the 13th NPC this year will give their voices to the nation's ultimate plans, with attendant strategies and tactics for implementation.

The flesh-and-bones content of every plan will attract national, regional and global attention, as they do every year, due to their reliability.

Investors and political scientists, diplomats and economic analysts, workers and youth, women and students, Party members and unaffiliated citizens are assured that the forecasts and finite factors revealed and relayed are facts and figures they can bank on.

Policy decisions will affect issues like the end of China's long march towards poverty eradication by 2020, ensuring its new economic policies stabilize national economic growth (already among the fastest in the world), offer projections on plans to continue contributing to almost one-third of global economic growth and tailor foreign policy considerations to meet today's old and new challenges on the global stage.

The 2018 Two Sessions are crucial in many respects: 

They follow last October's 19th CPC National Congress, which set the main goals for 2020 and beyond, including the intervening years of socialist modernization leading to 2035 and 2050. 

Decisions will be largely focused on building a moderately prosperous society that will evolve into a great modern socialist country between 2020 and 2050, all to be constructed with the bricks and mortar of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Interesting and ongoing positive developments in the neighboring Korean Peninsula which need to be protected and preserved, built upon and advanced in the mutual interests of all, will also be considered.

One year into the Trump Presidency, Washington has more than once finger-pointed at China as a major global competitor and a perceived “threat” to U.S. national security interests. The legislators will not only consider the entirety of the ramifications, but also the related remedial defense and security responses. 

This is also a time when U.S. businesses are showing more interest than ever in doing even more business with China; and most of the rest of the world has welcomed Beijing's clear signals at the last World Economic Forum in Davos that China remains wide open for business.

This being the first of the following couple of such sessions leading to the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and advanced planning also taking shape for the centenary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the middle of the 21st century, the Two Sessions will set both the path and pace at which the nation marches on its road of socialist construction.

The new state leadership for the next five years will be chosen during the 2018 sessions. Constitutional revision, last undertaken in 2004, has already been proposed and several related adjustments are also being made to effect innovative plans and actions.

Developing countries and developed states all have a stake in China's continuing growth and development and the 2018 Two Sessions have again attracted the keen attention of key decision-makers and strategic thinkers worldwide.

China's neighbors – and the wider world – will better know, after the twin sessions, what to expect from Beijing in the near, medium and long term future – and what not (to expect). 

But besides all else, China is sure to offer the world continued assurances that it can always be counted on as a reliable partner for global peace and development.

Earl Bousquet is a contributor to china.org.cn, editor-at-large of The Diplomatic Courier and author of an online regional newspaper column entitled Chronicles of a Chronic Caribbean Chronicler.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.