What to watch at China's 'two sessions' in crucial year

Job first

The government work report will normally set goals for key economic indicators, including jobs, inflation and fiscal deficit, and employment is expected to consistently top the agenda. Given the challenges ahead in 2020, a stable job market will be a linchpin of enhancing macro-control to keep sound economic fundamentals.

Recent official data showed China's job market remained generally stable yet still under pressure in April, with the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas standing at 6 percent, above the 2019 target of around 5.5 percent.

For a nation of 1.4 billion people, the government has pledged every effort to prevent massive lay-offs by using a combination of fiscal, monetary, social insurance and pro-employment policies. The upcoming "two sessions" are expected to further outline ways and means to ensure employment and people's livelihood.

Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC, said in a research note that further significant policies, including stimulus plans, will be in the pipeline to support epidemic-hit micro- and small companies and medium-size companies, self-employed businesses and export enterprises, which employ the majority of China's workforce.

Civil code

Lawmakers this year will deliberate a draft civil code, moving closer to Chinese people's decades-long aspiration of having such a basic civil law.

Consisting of general provisions and six parts on property, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance and torts liability, the draft has systematically integrated existing civil laws and regulations and modified them to adapt to new realities.

The decision to compile this civil code was announced in October 2014. According to the legislative plan, codification is expected to be concluded this year.

Once adopted, the civil code will greatly boost the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance, said Wang Yi, dean of the law school at Renmin University of China.