Agenda set for China's legislative session

BEIJING - China's national legislators Tuesday elected a presidium and set the agenda for the legislature's annual session, which is to open Wednesday.

A 176-member presidium was elected to take charge of the procedures of the second session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), which is scheduled to conclude on March 13, said Fu Ying, spokeswoman of the session, at a press conference.

Li Jianguo was elected secretary-general of the session, she said.

Almost 3,000 national lawmakers will hear and deliberate the government work report and examine the report on the national economic and social development plan as well as the central and local budgets.

They will also hear and deliberate the work reports of the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

This year is the first year after the third plenary session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, which issued a grand reform plan.

The NPC will carefully exercise its legal duties to unite people and overcome difficulties in the reform drive, Fu said.

This year's session will be a model of frugality, she said, adding that 17 measures have been adopted to create "a clean session."

According to Fu, there will be no welcoming and farewell ceremonies for NPC deputies at their hotels. The deputies are not allowed to invite each other to expensive dinners or exchange gifts and souvenirs.

All deputies will dine at buffets without expensive food and alcohol and the session will refuse any sponsorship.

During the session, the opening and closing meetings as well as other plenary meetings will be open to media and there will be about 20 press conferences, Fu said.

In the 60-year history of the NPC, the first press conference at an annual session was held in 1983. Since then, seven spokespersons have hosted the events and Fu is the first woman spokesperson.

A preparatory meeting was held earlier Tuesday morning to elect the session's presidium and secretary-general and adopt the agenda. The meeting was presided over by Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

The presidium is composed of senior officials of the Communist Party of China (CPC), non-Communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, personages without party affiliation, deputies from government agencies and people's organizations, and leading members of all the 35 delegations to the NPC session, including those from Hong Kong and Macao and the People's Liberation Army.

The presidium met shortly after the preparatory meeting closed. Zhang Dejiang was elected one of executive chairpersons of the presidium and will preside over the presidium meetings.

Before the preparatory meeting, chair and vice chairs of the 12th NPC Standing Committee held a meeting to make preparations for the upcoming session.

The meeting, presided over by Zhang, finalized a list of candidates for the presidium and secretary-general of the session as well as heard a report on the session's draft agenda, which were later submitted to the preparatory meeting.