III. Work related to you reached a new high.
The Standing Committee conscientiously implemented the guiding principles of
Decree No. 9 issued by the Central Committee in 2005 by formulating a set of
regulations for supporting and ensuring the lawful execution of your duties.
This will not only give more play to your role but also ensure that the work of
the Standing Committee remains full of life.
1. We carefully handled your proposals. During the Fourth Session of the
Tenth NPC last year, you submitted 1,006 bills and the presidium referred them
to seven special committees for deliberation. The concerned special committees
conducted in-depth investigations and listened to the opinions you expressed in
letters, phone calls, personal visits or forums. Those of you responsible for
submitting some proposals were also invited to participate in preparatory work,
formulation and deliberation for the draft law related to the bill they
submitted. For example, the revised Law on the Protection of Minors incorporated
your comments such as how to keep harmful information on the Internet away from
minors, how to protect the legitimate rights and interests of rural children
left behind when their parents go to the city to work and how to improve the
safety of school grounds. Many of the 1,006 bills aided in formulation of
legislation. Ten laws were deliberated and passed by the Standing Committee
related to 100 of the bills, 7 draft laws related to 26 bills were submitted to
the Standing Committee for deliberation, and another 51 legislative items
related to 358 bills were included in the schedule for legislation work or the
annual plan. Some other bills were referred to the State Council for study in
order to formulate related administrative regulations. Explanations were made
about your bills that called for legislation where conditions are not yet ripe.
The reports submitted by relevant special committees on the results of their
deliberation of your bills were deliberated and approved at the meeting of the
Standing Committee and printed and distributed to all of you.
2. We actively dealt with your suggestions. During the Fourth Session of the
Tenth NPC you submitted 6,511 suggestions, and these were referred to 174
organizations to study and process. With the concerted efforts of everyone
involved, 1,810 or 28 percent of the problems reflected in your suggestions have
already been solved or are being addressed, and solutions have been found or
work plans drawn up for 3,148 problems, or 48 percent of the total. Both figures
were higher than the previous year. All the organizations processing the
suggestions placed great value on the work. Even their top leaders became
personally involved, maintained good communications with you and, strengthened
their follow-up efforts. The Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's
Procuratorate and 12 departments of the State Council, including the National
Development and Reform Commission, reported to the Standing Committee in writing
on the handling of your suggestions. Last year the Ministry of Water Resources
handled all the 194 suggestions it was given and wrote a reply to you for each
and every one of them. Working with other relevant departments, the Ministry of
Water Resources did a great deal of work to solve the problem of inadequate safe
water supplies in the dry rural areas of central Ningxia, a problem raised by
the region's delegation of NPC deputies. The Ministry set up a special fund for
water to meet the emergency needs during the drought and to ensure safe water
supplies for 250,000 local people and made plans to develop enough safe water
supplies within three years or so to basically solve the problem of inadequate
safe water supply for 540,000 rural residents in Ningxia. The Ministry
formulated a plan to solve the problem raised by the Macao delegation concerning
the effect of the salt tide on water supplies in the region. Beginning last
September, emergency measures have been taken to curb the salt tide during the
dry season to ensure that Macao residents can drink clean water.
3. We expanded your participation in the activities of the Standing
Committee. The number of NPC deputies invited to the meetings of the Standing
Committee as non-voting participants increased from 140-some to 185, and the
number of deputies who participated in law compliance inspections and
legislation-related investigations rose from nearly 400 to more than 500.
Agendas, relevant documents and reference materials for the meetings were sent
to the non-voting deputies in a timely manner. The Standing Committee held a
forum for invited deputies before it met to brief them on its work, explain
bills and listen to the comments and suggestions of the deputies concerning its
work. Those of you who were invited to attend meetings and participate in
activities carefully prepared before the events and were enthusiastic about
speaking at the meetings, greatly contributing to the Standing Committee's work.
4. We improved the organization of activities and services for you. We
improved organization and services for your investigations and studies on
special topics. You were free to form investigating groups on your own, chose
your topics based on actual conditions, much better focused your investigations
and studies and made them much more effective. All this played an important role
in raising the quality of your bills and proposals. Statistics show that 1,874
of you, 63 percent of all NPC deputies, participated in special topic
investigations and studies last year, nearly 10 percentage points higher than
the previous year, and your investigations resulted in 183 reports. We organized
you on inspection tours centered on the building of a harmonious socialist
society and arranged for those of you representing Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan
to make inspection and research tours in Anhui, Hubei, Xinjiang and Jiangsu. We
held five training sessions attended by more than 400 of you to study and
discuss issues such as how to protect resources and the environment, how to
build a new socialist countryside and how to make China an innovative country.
Each standing committee of the people's congresses of provinces, autonomous
regions and municipalities directly under the central government set up a
liaison office for you, further improving the level of service for you.
