Chinese Lawmakers to Review NPC Annual Draft ReportWith the impending 4th session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), a draft work of the NPC Standing Committee was submitted for deliberation at the 20th meeting of the NPC Standing Committee, which opened Monday, February 26.Li Peng, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over Monday's plenary meeting of the session. Members of the NPC Standing Committee, China's top legislature, will also review a name list of the non-voting delegates to the full NPC session and decide on qualifications of newly elected or added deputies to the NPC. Li Boyong, vice chairman of the NPC Law Committee, gave a presentation on the draft amendments to the Pharmaceutical Administration Law, which makes it clear that prescribed medicines are not allowed to be advertised on the mass media. Such medicine is only permitted to be advertised in medicine journals designated by the national medicine administrative departments, the draft says. In order to better fight corruptive practice among medicine administrative departments, the draft amendments stipulate that such departments are prohibited to take part in producing or selling medicine, not to mention recommending or doing so in the name of "supervision," Li noted. In his presentation on the draft amendments to the Law on Regional Autonomy of Ethnic Minorities, Zhou Keyu, vice chairman of the NPC Law Committee, said the draft amendments added that the local government is responsible for funding the boarding school and students' stipends in the ethnic areas. The above two law drafts are expected to be presented for a final vote for approval at this session of the legislature. Qu Geping, chairman of the NPC Environment and Resources Protection Committee (ERPC), elaborated to the lawmakers the impending necessity to formulate an anti-desertification law to better maintain the country's bio-safety. According to Qu, some tighter measures and more specific duties of governments at various levels will be stipulated in the new law. For instance, the draft law says that the government leader who holds direct responsibility for the deterioration of the environment under his jurisdiction would not be promoted or continue to hold his original post. Tang Jiaxuan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, gave a presentation on the International Convention of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which has been signed by the Chinese government and was presented to the law making body for a second review. The meeting, prior to the full NPC annual session, will last three days. |
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