NPC Session Holds Third Plenary Meeting

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 10, 2003

NPC Session Holds Third Plenary Meeting

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The first session of the 10th National People's Congress held its third plenary meeting Monday, which heard a report presented by top legislator Li Peng on the work of the Standing Committee of the 9th National People's Congress (NPC) and adopted a plan for restructuring the government and the procedure for election and appointment.

Li Peng, chairman of the Standing Committee of the 9th NPC, said the Standing Committee of the 9th NPC scored remarkable achievements both in making laws and in exercising supervision.

The Standing Committee of the 9th NPC reviewed 124 laws, judicial interpretations and draft decisions on legal issues, and adopted 109 of them.

"A socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics is initially taking shape," Li told the about 3,000 NPC deputies attending the current annual session.

Li said the Standing Committee of the 9th NPC attached equal importance to both legislation and supervision. It checked the enforcement of 22 laws and decisions on legal issues, and heard 40specialized reports by the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

"Practice has proved that the people's congress is a system best suited to China's actual conditions, serving as a fundamental guarantee for ensuring prosperity and long-term peace and stability of the country, and it must continue," Li stressed.

The meeting adopted a plan for restructuring the government. According to the plan, there will be 28 ministries and commissions under the State Council instead of the original 29, with the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce by merger of the former State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

According to the plan, adopted by a large majority vote at the third plenary meeting of the on-going first session of the 10th NPC, one ministerial-level department has been struck from the list to reduce the total number from 29 to 28.

New in the list is the Ministry of Commerce, which is mandated to exercise the functions of the former State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, which have disappeared from the list.

The State Development Planning Commission is renamed the State Development and Reform Commission, which is put in charge of the country's economic restructuring, while the State Family Planning Commission is renamed the State Population and Family Planning Commission, which takes the responsibility of beefing up research in population development.

Under the government restructuring plan, the State Council will form a commission for the management of state property, responsible for the reform and reorganization of state-owned enterprises, and a commission to regulate the banking industry, and establish a state food and drug administration on the basis of the State Drug Administration to reinforce supervision over the safety of food, health products and cosmetics. The State Administration of Work Safety will be upgraded to oversee industrial production and coal mining.

The procedure for elections at the first session of the 10th NPC adopted at the meeting provides that the Presidium of the first session of the 10th NPC will nominate candidates for chairman, vice-chairmen, secretary-general, and members of the Standing Committee of the 10th NPC, China's president and vice-president, chairman of the Central Military Commission of China, president of the Supreme People's Court and Chief Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

The premier will be nominated by the president of the People's Republic of China, and the vice-premiers, state councilors, ministers, the governor of the People's Bank of China will be nominated by the premier.

The Standing Committee of the 10th NPC will have 175 members, including a chairman, vice-chairmen and a secretary-general, totaling 16. The elections will take place next Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

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