5,027 proposals passed up the line for review

A huge proportion of proposals raised by China's political advisers last year for improved policymaking have been accepted or responded to, the country's national political advisory body said.

Of the 6,012 proposals raised since the third session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held in March, 5,027 were deemed useful and passed over to authorities, said Sun Gan, chief of the subcommittee for handling proposals of the CPPCC National Committee.

More than 1,500 of them are related to the Ministry of Finance, and some 1,100 concerned the National Development and Reform Commission. The ministries of education, human resources and social security, agriculture, civil affairs, technology and commerce also received at least 240 proposals from CPPCC members.

"Last year's proposals have been handled with improved efficiency, with many suggestions and ideas adopted and implemented," Sun said, adding that some proposals were written into the draft of 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

The majority of CPPCC members are satisfied with the result. Tian Jie, deputy head of the subcommittee for handling proposals of the CPPCC National Committee, said about 99 percent of CPPCC members are satisfied with authorities' attitudes in handling their proposals, and 97 percent are satisfied with the responses.

The fourth session of the 12th National Committee of CPPCC will start on March 3. Since January, more than 460 proposals from central committees of democratic parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce have been submitted, and 100 proposals from CPPCC members.

Tian said CPPCC members should focus on the quality, instead of quantity, of proposals.

"Some of the proposals were written without comprehensive investigation, and some policies were adopted by government agencies a long time ago, yet some proposals were still calling on governments to do the same thing," Tian said.

Tian said that this year it was hoped the number of proposals would remain at the same level or even drop slightly.

"We hope proposals will be the joint effort of groups, which will be more mature and constructive. Last year we had some 400 group proposals," Tian said.

suzhou@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/24/2016 page4)