NPC to support reform and opening-up in 2019: chairman

China's top legislature plans to further improve its legislation and oversight work this year to better support the country's social and economic development, according to its annual work report.

The second session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's national legislature, started its second plenary meeting on Friday afternoon.

President Xi Jinping along with other Chinese leaders attended the meeting at the Great Hall of the People.

"We must move forward with formulating and revising urgently needed laws for deepening market-based reform and expanding high-standard opening-up," Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said while delivering the committee's work report to legislators.

Public wellbeing, national security, intellectual property rights protection, social governance, and ecological advancement legislation will be pushed forward, and the principle of law-based taxation will be further enforced, he said.

Major legislative items identified by the leadership will also be prioritized this year, such as deliberation on the civil code, drafting a new amendment of the Criminal Law, and laws on basic medical and healthcare, real estate tax, export control, community correction and veteran support, according to the report.

The legislature will also play a supervisory role, inspecting the enforcement of laws, conducting research, hearing work reports and conducting special inquiries.

It plans to inspect the enforcement of six laws in 2019, including those on water pollution and renewable energy, and it will conduct inquiries into water pollution control, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and public interest litigation, according to the report.

It will also hear work reports on improving the management of State-owned assets, criminal trials and public interest litigation, and also plans to research poverty alleviation, mitigation of financial risks, reform of the supervision system, and the enforcement of the Supervision Law, the report said.

Before introducing the NPC Standing Committee's tasks for this year, Li looked back on its achievements over the past year.

The legislature formulated eight laws, made 47 revisions of laws, and adopted nine decisions on legal issues and other major issues, he said.

It heard and deliberated 24 work reports from the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, primarily covering national plans, budgets and audits.

It also inspected the enforcement of six laws, including the Law on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution and the Marine Environment Protection Law, and conducted three special inquiries and five research projects, according to the report.