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.

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