Local bodies bolster efforts to make legislation relevant to people's daily lives

In recent years, local people's congresses－local legislative bodies－have stepped up efforts to enact more regulations that are relevant to people's lives and involve new industrial development. The moves are part of efforts to respond to concerns in a timely fashion and meet people's demands to live better lives.

In the past five years, lawmakers in Xiangyang, a city in Central China's Hubei province, have formulated and enacted seven regulations related to people's livelihoods and the city's cultural development. That was because the issues were those that most concerned the public and had to be solved among local residents.

"For example, we devised a number of regulations involving waste sorting, which not only focused on urban garbage, but also the rural areas," said He Aiqun, a senior legislator with the standing committee of the Xiangyang people's congress, the city's legislative body.

"We safeguarded our historical and cultural heritage by making regulations, aiming to bring new vitality to this ancient city and provide a better living environment for residents," he said.

Further afield, lawmakers in Shandong province drafted a regulation to promote improvements by outlawing the illegal modification of cars after widespread complaints about noise pollution caused by motor vehicles, according to a report posted on the official website of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.

Moreover, by widely applying big data in many aspects, Anhui province passed a regulation related to building a platform to coordinate the overall development of such technology and promote the local digital economy, the report said.

In Beijing, the responsibilities of government departments after they receive complaints from residents have also been clarified in a regulation related to 12345, the local hotline for people to report problems related to their lives and work, it said.

The report called for local people's congresses to identify urgent issues and characteristics in the development of their cities or provinces, and to formulate more regulations in accordance with local circumstances.

He, the legislator from Xiangyang, said that the things people most care about should be the main research targets of local legislative bodies "as the regulations we make are intended to serve the people and solve their problems".

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