Mechanization of agriculture has taken center stage as China's
top lawmakers prepare to meet next week.
National legislators gathered in Beijing Thursday to make
preparations for the second plenary meeting of the incumbent
parliament, scheduled to open next week.
They will review a draft agenda for the second plenary session
of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) - which includes a new
law emphasizing mechanization of agriculture - a draft name list of
the presidium and secretaries-general of the meeting.
The lawmakers will also review a draft copy of the 10th NPC
Standing Committee's yearly report. The standing committee is the
permanent body of the NPC, China's top legislature. The report is
set to be delivered by Wu Bangguo, who became chair last March.
Among the top items up for debate are a draft law on the
promotion of agricultural mechanization and a draft amendment to
the decade-old Foreign Trade Law.
Development of agricultural mechanization is the only way to
improve productivity and an effective tool to increase the income
of farmers, said to Liu Mingzu, director of the NPC Agriculture and
Rural Affairs Committee.
It has been a major target for the country to improve the
farmers' living standards.
Liu's committee Thursday submitted the draft law to the
legislators for preliminary review.
"Agricultural machines are an important material base for modern
agriculture and a major carrier of developed agricultural science
and technology," Liu said.
He said the draft law is also designed to stabilize the
preferential policies on the development of agricultural
mechanization rendered by the central and local governments.
It is a common practice for agriculturally developed nations to
give necessary support for agricultural mechanization, which is
consistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization.
The draft amendment to the Foreign Trade Law has been further
revised after the first round of deliberation by the lawmakers at
the end of last year.
It has further clarified provisions on such issues as State
trade and authorized operation to make administration of foreign
trade more open and transparent.
The revision was conducted in response to complaints from some
enterprises, experts and some foreign chambers of commerce and
foreign invested enterprises in Beijing that the original
stipulation was too vague and lacked transparency.
The lawmakers will also review a report on the establishment of
a formal conference mechanism between the NPC and the US Senate,
which was established at the beginning of the new year in
Hawaii.
In a Memorandum of Understanding they agreed to establish the
NPC-US Senate Parliamentary Group.
So far, the US Senate has only established similar exchange
mechanisms with Britain, Canada, Mexico and the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization.
(China Daily February 27, 2004)