Over 2,300 Journalists to Cover NPC, CPPCC Sessions

Over 2,300 Journalists to Cover NPC, CPPCC Sessions

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Over 2,300 correspondents from China and other countries have registered with the press center for covering the plenary sessions of China's top legislature and the top advisory body, a press official for the sessions said Friday.

The fourth session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) is scheduled to open on March 5, and the Fourth Session of the Ninth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is scheduled to open Saturday.

On top of the agenda of the two sessions will be the country's economic and social development plan for 2001 and the development plan for the next five years.

Over 370 reporters will come from foreign news organizations, including all mainstream Western media, said Shen Zhangrong, head of the joint press center for the two sessions, Friday.

Over 310 will come from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, a figure 20 percent more than in the previous sessions.

Many traditional media organizations will give special attention to employing the cyberspace as a modern means of information transmission, said Shen.

The opening and closing sessions of the NPC and the CPPCC, plenary sessions and some group discussions will be open to the media, Shen noted.

In addition, the press center will organize a number of press conferences and many group interviews during the run of the conferences.

It will also help arrange interviews with NPC deputies and CPPCC National Committee members upon request, and provide data that are of interest to journalists, he said.