China explores ways to make legislation more scientific, democratic: Wu

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China has explored new ways of making legislation more scientific and democratic as part of the innovation drive in the work of the country's supreme legislature, top legislator Wu Bangguo said Friday.

"Creating new work methods and making the work of the National People's Congress (NPC) keep up with the times is an inherent requirement for adhering to and improving the system of people's congresses," said Wu Bangguo, chairman of the 11th NPC Standing Committee.

The Standing Committee improved the mechanism for releasing draft laws for public comments so that their release became a regular practice, Wu said while delivering a work report of the 11th NPC Standing Committee at the ongoing annual parliamentary session.

All draft laws under deliberation by the committee are posted online and important ones are published to solicit opinions from the society, Wu said.

The committee also improved the feedback mechanism for recommendations from the public to respond to people's concerns, he said.

"This process expands the people's orderly participation in legislation, makes policymaking more scientific and democratic, and raises people's awareness of the law," Wu said.

Over the past five years, the committee released 48 draft laws for public comments, and over 300,000 people made more than one million comments on them, according to Wu.

The committee also launched a pilot project for evaluating laws after they are passed, and established a mechanism for this purpose, Wu added.