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1. Produce effective legislation to promote development and help ensure good governance
The law is of great value to the governance of a country, and good laws are a prerequisite for good governance. With a view toward putting in place a socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, the 12th NPC and its Standing Committee have conscientiously exercised state legislative powers, enacting, revising, repealing, and interpreting laws as necessary. By grasping and following the principles of legislative work, we have been able to continuously improve it.
In reviewing the experience gained in recent years, we have realized that to do our legislative work well we must adhere to the following principles:
First, uphold the Party's leadership over legislative work. We must work in line with the objectives and tasks set by the Party Central Committee for China's legislative work. The Leading Party Members' Group of the Standing Committee must promptly request instructions from and submit reports to the Party Central Committee on major issues and matters in legislation.
Second, allow legislation to play its guiding and driving role. We must remain committed to coordinating the advancement of both rule of law and reform and to ensuring rule of law and rule of virtue work in concert with one another. We must instill core socialist values into the development of the rule of law, and develop the rule of law to provide a guarantee for the country's reform, development, and stability.
Third, ensure the NPC plays its dominant role in legislative work. We need to improve legislative systems and mechanisms, strengthen organization and coordination in relation to legislative work, and make this work more timely, systematic, targeted, and effective.
Fourth, legislate more effectively and democratically. In line with the idea of putting the people first in legislation and making legislation for them, we must build up broad consensus on legislation and ensure that legislative bodies properly fulfill their important role of voicing, balancing, and adjusting the interests of different sectors of society.
This coming year, we will better adhere to the above mentioned ways of thinking, principles, and methods, given their proven effectiveness in our legislative work. We will strengthen both legislation in key areas and work regarding the enactment, revision, abolition, and interpretation of laws related to reform. We will raise the quality of legislation and ensure that the objectives and tasks set for legislative work are met and accomplished.
First, we will carry out the decision and plan of the Party Central Committee on deepening reform of the national supervision system. This means that we will revise the Law on Administrative Supervision to turn it into a national supervision law, so as to provide a legal guarantee for our efforts to put in place a centralized, unified, authoritative, and highly-efficient national supervision system.
Second, we will improve the legal system with a view toward building new systems for development. After issuing the General Provisions of Civil Law, we will step up our work on compiling the individual books of a civil code. We will strengthen protection of civil law rights and improve our system of laws and regulations concerning equal protection of property rights. To ensure law-based taxation, we will formulate laws on specific taxes, such as a tobacco leaf tax law and a tonnage tax law. To improve the modern market system, we will work on establishing an e-commerce law and revising several laws, including the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, the Law on Promoting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the Law on Farmers' Specialized Cooperatives, the Securities Law, and the Standardization Law.
Third, we will strengthen the development of laws and regulations concerning social, cultural, ecological, and other issues. We will formulate a community correction law, a basic medical and health care law, and a law on public libraries, so as to improve the social governance system, push forward the building of a Healthy China, and guarantee the people's cultural rights and interests. To promote ecological progress, we will enact a law for the prevention and control of soil pollution and revise the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution. We will formulate a nuclear safety law, an intelligence law, and a law on international judicial assistance in criminal matters, and revise the Surveying and Mapping Law. We will also revise the Organic Law of the People's Courts and the Organic Law of the People's Procuratorates.
Fourth, we will effectively carry out work concerning the authorization of pilot reforms.
2. Deliver proper and effective oversight
Oversight by the NPC and its Standing Committee over the work of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and over the enforcement of the Constitution and other laws, is both an inherent requirement and institutional design of the system of people's congresses and a practice that embodies the constitutional principle that all state power belongs to the people. The 12th NPC Standing Committee has effectively exercised the power of oversight granted to it by the Constitution and other laws and has adhered to the basic principle that oversight must be proper and effective. Throughout this process, we have developed a deeper understanding of the designed functions of oversight by people's congresses as well as the principles governing this work.
To exercise proper oversight, it is vital that we consistently uphold leadership by the Party and coordinate our oversight work nationwide. We must exercise oversight in strict accordance with our legally mandated powers and statutory procedures. We must have both the courage and the competence to carry out oversight and properly manage the relationship between oversight and support, so that we can truly help the State Council carry out administration in accordance with the law and help the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate administer justice impartially. This is a way for us to work together with them and help them strengthen and improve their work.
To deliver effective oversight, it is crucial that we keep to a problem-oriented approach and identify the focal points of our oversight work, while keeping in mind the overall work of the Party and the country. We should improve the way we carry out oversight, conducting follow-up oversight to get to the bottom of problems and see real results. This will allow us to work toward resolution of major and difficult issues of common concern to NPC deputies and the general public, and to ensure that the people gain a greater sense of benefit.
This coming year, we will keep in mind and put into practice the new development philosophy and adhere to the vision of people-centered development. We will strengthen oversight over the implementation of laws and over the work of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, so that we can help ensure steady and sound economic development as well as social harmony and stability.
First, we will intensify oversight of the implementation of laws. We will inspect compliance with the Pharmaceutical Administration Law, the Product Quality Law, the Copyright Law, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes, the Seed Law, and the Cybersecurity Law.
Second, we will strengthen oversight of government budgets and final accounts. We will hear and deliberate the State Council's reports on the central government's final accounts for 2016, on auditing work, on budget implementation, and on the rectification of problems discovered in auditing. We will conduct research on topics such as standardizing non-tax revenue management, and explore ways to put in place a system through which the State Council reports to the NPC Standing Committee on the management of state-owned assets. We will press ahead with the integrated online oversight of budgets.
Third, with a focus on the government's comprehensive initiatives to ensure steady growth, advance reform, make structural adjustments, improve living standards, and guard against risks, we will hear and deliberate reports of the State Council on the implementation of the plan for national economic and social development and on the work to advance supply-side structural reform and accelerate transformation and upgrading of manufacturing. We will hear and deliberate reports of the State Council on poverty reduction progress, on allocation and utilization of government funds for education, on drug administration, and on protection of cultural heritage. We will hear and deliberate the State Council's reports on the state of the environment and the fulfillment of environmental protection targets in 2016, and on its work concerning grassland ecological conservation and environmental protection. We will conduct research on the implementation of the Law on the Protection of Minors, on economic and social development in townships where ethnic minorities live, and on protection of the rights and interests of overseas Chinese.
Fourth, with a view to promoting judicial impartiality, we will hear and deliberate reports of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on their work to comprehensively deepen judicial reform.
Fifth, we will make consistent efforts to strengthen oversight over enforcement of the Constitution. We will hold events to mark National Constitution Day and organize in accordance with the law swearing-in ceremonies for pledging allegiance to the Constitution. We will accelerate the building of a nationally unified information platform for recording and reviewing normative documents so as to improve our work in this regard. (more)
