China’s State Council handles 8,108 NPC motions, 4,115 CPPCC proposals last year (3)

Offices and departments under China's State Council handled 8,108 motions submitted by deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) and 4,115 proposals submitted by members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) last year, according to a recent press conference.

The two figures accounted for 88.3 percent and 84.9 percent of the total, respectively, said Shou Xiaoli, a spokesperson of China’s State Council Information Office.

Related departments adopted some 3,700 pieces of advice and subsequently introduced about 1,500 policy measures, which helped advance the country's efforts to reduce poverty, improve the public health emergency response and management system, and solve livelihood problems, Shou added.

Liu Zhao, China’s vice minister of Public Security introduced at the press conference that the country's public security authorities have handled all the 683 motions and proposals collected during the previous annual sessions of the NPC and CPPCC.

Road traffic security has always been a major concern of NPC deputies and CPPCC members, as well as the whole society. According to Liu, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) handled 153 motions and proposals about security management of roads traffic, which accounted for 22.5 percent of the total. Many of these motions and proposals were related to the management of vehicles and drivers, as well as electric bikes, he said.

After studying these motions and proposals, the MPS launched 19 reform measures last year that served the people 3 billion times in total and reduced more than 60 billion yuan ($9.28 billion) of cost for people and enterprises, the vice minister noted.

In recent years, the renovation of old urban residential communities was also a focus of the NPC deputies and CPPCC members. "Last year, 25 pieces of advice were about old urban residential community renovation," said Zhang Xiaohong, China’s vice minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, adding that the ministry attached high attention on these proposals and many of them were adopted in a guideline issued by the General Office of the State Council to advance the work of old urban residential community renovation.

Last year, China started renovation projects for 40,300 old urban residential communities, benefiting 7.36 million households, Zhang introduced. Besides, local authorities also made positive exploration in accelerating project approval, integrating and exploiting existing resources, and attracting social participation, and formed a batch of replicable solutions and policy mechanisms.

China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MAFA) handled 1,054 motions and 491 proposals collected during the previous annual sessions of the NPC and CPPCC. The ministry, based on serious study of these motions and proposals, further improved its policy support for grain production, made clear the responsibilities of local governments to develop grain production, and ensured stable acreage of grain production, said Liu Huanxin, vice minister of MAFA.

The ministry coordinated pandemic control and agricultural production, promoted green and efficient technologies, and effectively coped with floods in the Yangtze River, summer droughts in northeast China, typhoons and other meteorological disasters, he said. Besides, the ministry also successfully prevented stripe rust disease of wheat and wheat scab, and stopped the invasion of fall armyworms and desert locusts, the vice minister added.

"Among the motions and proposals received by the National Administration for Rural Revitalization in 2020, more than 60 were about consolidating poverty alleviation results and preventing reoccurrence of poverty, accounting for 15 percent of the total," said Hong Tianyun, deputy head of the administration.

The administration will improve its monitoring and assistance mechanism to prevent reoccurrence of poverty, timely discover and help those who slip back to poverty, enhance data sharing and cooperation with relevant departments, and establish a monitoring and verification system for the groups vulnerable to falling back to poverty for dynamic management.

Besides, the administration will also keep its efforts to ensure adequate income and drinking water safety for residents and regions lifted out of poverty, and implement policies to guarantee livelihood, including education, health care, housing, and drinking water supply, to prevent massive falling back to poverty.