BEIJING, March 8 -- The decision adopted by China's top legislature on the selection of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive by universal suffrage is of "great significance," top legislator Zhang Dejiang said Sunday.

Pursuant to the Basic Law of the HKSAR and the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee's earlier interpretation of that law and decision on the selection of the chief executive, the NPC Standing Committee adopted the decision on issues relating to the selection of the chief executive of the HKSAR by universal suffrage and on the method for forming its Legislative Council in 2016.

This decision provides the principles and direction for the HKSAR to follow in developing concrete methods for selecting its chief executive by universal suffrage, said Zhang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, while delivering a work report at a plenary meeting of the top legislature's annual session.

It is "thus of great significance to fully implementing the principles of 'one country, two systems,' the people of Hong Kong governing Hong Kong, and the region enjoying a high degree of autonomy," he said.

The decision is also significant to "fully enforcing the Basic Law of the HKSAR, and to ensuring that Hong Kong develops democracy in a gradual and systematic way and successfully selects its chief executive by universal suffrage in accordance with the law in 2017," he said.

The NPC Standing Committee has a constitutional responsibility to ensure the proper enforcement of the Basic Law of the HKSAR and to advance the development of Hong Kong's political system in accordance with the law, and thus saw it as necessary to decide a number of key elements and relevant issues relating to the system for selecting the chief executive by universal suffrage, he said.

The committee made the decision in August last year, giving clear stipulations on key factors in the universal suffrage system for the HKSAR Chief Executive.

The decision allows two or three candidates to run for the HKSAR's top job after obtaining support from at least half of a broadly representative nominating committee.