We will maintain consistency in the current policy on family planning, keep
the birthrate low, improve the health of newborns and take effective steps to
correct the gender imbalance in newborns. We will extend the system for
rewarding and supporting rural families that observe the family planning policy
to more areas and expand the "Fewer Children Equals Faster Prosperity Project"
in the western region. We will do a good job in work related to the elderly,
protect the rights and interests of women and children, and launch more programs
to help disabled persons.
We will continue to improve production safety. Ensuring production safety is
a huge responsibility. We must not compromise production safety for the sake of
economic development. We have adopted many measures in recent years to improve
production safety, and safety has improved somewhat. However, it remains a major
problem. The main reasons for this are: Production safety measures have not been
truly implemented; enterprises do not take full responsibility for production
safety; production safety equipment and facilities are backward; overheated
demand for coal is straining both production and transportation facilities;
basic safety work in enterprises is weak; and some enterprises commit serious
violations of laws and regulations concerning production. In addition, some
local officials and government employees commit serious neglect or dereliction
of duty, and some go so far as to engage in corruption.
The key to improving production safety lies in addressing both symptoms and
root causes of safety problems, with the focus on the latter. First, governments
at all levels must give greater priority to production safety, and leading
government officials must personally take overall responsibility for safety,
give enterprises greater responsibility for production safety, and ensure that
the responsibility system for production safety is practiced at every level.
Second, we will implement economic policies that encourage safe production. We
will improve the system of incentives and restraints to encourage enterprises to
take production safety more seriously. Third, we will accelerate reform and
reorganization of the coal industry to promote the establishment of large coal
mining bases by encouraging larger coal mining enterprise groups to take over
and upgrade small and medium-sized coal mines. Fourth, we will invest more in
production safety. The central government will again allocate 3 billion yuan
from the sale of treasury bonds this year, primarily to support pilot projects
to find scientific and technological ways to comprehensively control and utilize
coalmine gases. Local governments and coal enterprises also need to invest more
in this area. Fifth, we will launch an extensive campaign to solve production
safety problems. We will continue to work to bring coalmine gases under control
and to remedy safety problems in coal mines. In addition, we will also address
safety problems related to other types of mines, dangerous chemicals, fireworks,
land and water transportation, construction, and fire prevention. Sixth, we will
improve enterprise management. We will improve basic safety work in enterprises
and improve technical and quality standards for production safety. We will
increase training of production safety technicians and training of all
enterprise employees in production safety techniques. We will make sure that
employees play their role in strengthening and overseeing production safety.
Seventh, we will improve legislation concerning production safety. We will
strictly enforce the law and exercise strict supervision. We will increase
efforts to identify the parties responsible for production accidents and
prosecute them. We will conduct in-depth investigations into cases of
dereliction of duty and corruption related to production safety and severely
punish the responsible parties. We will adopt comprehensive measures to firmly
halt the frequent occurrence of major incidents.
8. Strengthening democracy and safeguarding social stability
We need to consolidate and develop the current political situation of
democracy, solidarity, liveliness, stability and harmony. We will improve the
democratic system, enrich the forms of democracy, expand orderly citizen
participation in politics, and guarantee that the people are able to participate
in democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management and
democratic oversight in accordance with the law. We will promote law-based
government administration and strengthen and improve legislative work, focusing
on legislation concerning resource conservation, environmental protection,
employment, social security, response to public emergencies, promotion of social
stability and maintenance of market order. We will improve the mechanisms,
procedures and methods for public participation in legislative work. We will do
follow-up investigations on the implementation of laws and regulations. We will
continue to strengthen auditing and oversight work. Education in the law will be
further expanded. We will provide effective legal services and assistance to
help people who cannot afford the costs of filing a lawsuit. We will implement a
variety of measures for judicial restructuring to further standardize law
enforcement activities and promote greater fairness in the judiciary, safeguard
judicial authority, and make law enforcement strict, fair and civilized.
We will pay close attention to social stability and make extensive and
thorough going efforts to promote peace and security. We will correctly handle
conflicts of interest in society in the new period and conscientiously implement
all policies affecting the people's interests. We will pay particular attention
to solving problems reported by the people and resolving conflicts of interest
in society as they arise. We will do a good job handling people's petitions made
via letters and visits. We will improve and consolidate government authority at
the township level and ensure harmony in communities, villages and towns. We
will improve the early warning system for disturbances to social stability and
the emergency response mechanism. We will improve all facets of public security,
speed up the development of a crime prevention and control system, and
rigorously prosecute people who engage in violent and economic crimes, and
frequently occurring crimes against property such as theft and robbery, in
accordance with the law. We will strengthen efforts to safeguard national
security.
It is the common wish of the people of all our ethnic groups to strengthen
solidarity among ethnic groups and maintain national unity and social stability.
We must fully implement the policies, laws, and regulations on ethnic
minorities, conscientiously follow the State Council's regulations for
implementing the Law on the Autonomy of Ethnic Minority Regions, and encourage
all ethnic groups to join hands and work together for common prosperity and
development. We will make great efforts to train officials and professionals in
various fields from among ethnic minority groups. We will implement the Party's
basic principles for work related to religious affairs and become better able to
administer these affairs in accordance with the law. We will further improve our
work related to overseas Chinese affairs under the new circumstances.
Fellow Deputies,
Strengthening national defense and the army is an important strategic task in
China's socialist modernization drive. We must continue to take as our guide Mao
Zedong's military thinking, Deng Xiaoping's thinking on improving the army in
the new period, and Jiang Zemin's thinking on national defense and improving the
army; take a scientific outlook on development as an important guiding principle
for strengthening national defense and the army; and adhere to the fundamental
principle and system of the absolute leadership of the Party over the army. In
order to ensure that the army can effectively carry out its historical mission
at the new stage in the new century, we need to speed up the military reform
with Chinese characteristics and raise the army's overall ability to fight a
defensive war fought using IT. We will pay special attention to military
training to produce highly skilled military personnel. We will intensify efforts
to develop and reform the military logistics system. We will improve
defense-related research and development of new- and high-tech weapons and
equipment. We will continue to run the army strictly in accordance with the law
and raise its level of standardization. We will improve all aspects of the
People's Armed Police to make it better able to enforce the law and respond to
emergencies. We will improve the system and mechanisms for national defense
mobilization, focusing on raising the quality of the militia and reserve forces.
We will launch an extensive campaign to promote mutual support between the
military and civilians. We will strengthen and develop solidarity between the
army and the government and between the army and civilians.