High Tech Brings Efficiency to NPC, CPPCC Sessions

The Internet, IC cards, bar codes and computers are a necessity for almost all the 5,000 deputies of China's top legislature, the National People's Congress, and members of China's top advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, who are in Beijing for their respective annual sessions.

Shen Zhangrong, who is in charge of the press center of the NPC, said deputies and members now use IC cards for registration and bar codes for identification when they enter meeting venues.

Liu Jinrong, a CPPCC National Committee member, said three to seven computer monitors installed at each of the seven hotels where CPPCC National Committee members stay give them access to information released by the National Bureau of Statistics and related information on CPPCC.

Over 90 proposals have been tabled via a proposal submitting computer system developed for the CPPCC session, said Liu.

Zhou Jinfeng, a 38 year-old CPPCC National Committee member from the economic circle, said he submitted four proposals online to the CPPCC Proposal Committee half a month before.

"The Internet has made it easier for members to submit proposals and CPPCC's national committee to process them," he said.

High tech will greatly enhance efficiency for the two sessions. Speeches at the two coming sessions are expected to total 2 million Chinese characters. They will be compiled and published in compact disks soon after the conclusion of the sessions.

Over 30 percent of the NPC deputies and CPPCC National Committee members have access to the Internet, said Liu.

Xu Shanyan, also a member of the CPPCC National Committee, said that China is striving to become a major world player in science and technology, and that the extensive application of high-tech products at the sessions convinces him that the day will come soon.

Reinvigorating China through science and technology has become a basic state policy in the new century.






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