NPC will start sitting March 5

Together with CPPCC, two sessions will consider important legislative drafts

The 13th National People's Congress will kick off its fifth annual session in Beijing on March 5 next year, according to a decision passed by the NPC Standing Committee on Friday.

Routine tasks proposed to be reviewed at the session will be reviewing annual work reports of the central government, the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, with deliberation of the annual plan for economic and social development as well as the central and local budgets, the decision said.

The decision also suggests the session will review the draft amendment to the Organic Law of the Local People's Congresses and the Local Governments.

Additionally, a draft decision on the number of deputies to the 14th NPC and their election, with two draft methods for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region to elect their deputies to the 14th NPC, is also expected to be reviewed during the 13th NPC's fifth session, the decision added.

The NPC, the highest organ of State power and the top legislative body in China, is responsible for supervising the government and judicial system, and determining major State issues.

In 2018, about 3,000 people from various walks of life, including government officials, scientists, lawyers and migrant workers, were elected as deputies to the 13th NPC. They serve a term of five years under the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the fifth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body, has been suggested to begin on March 4. The suggestion was raised in a draft decision approved at a Chairperson's Council meeting of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.

The CPPCC is an important means of promoting socialist democracy in China. Its members, including scholars and entrepreneurs, serve as advisers for government, legislative and judicial bodies and put forward proposals on major political and social issues.

The two sessions, as China's biggest annual political events, usually start in early March. About 3,000 national lawmakers and around 2,000 political advisers at the time travel to Beijing, discussing the nation's crucial economic and political issues as well as drafting laws related to people's interests and social development.

On Friday, a few laws, including three new pieces on organized crime, wetlands protection and prevention and control of noise pollution, were also passed by the NPC Standing Committee.