The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top advisory body, which will open its annual session Monday, is enlarging and changing its membership and paying increasing attention to major political, economic and social issues.

Zhang Guoxiang, spokesman for the first session of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), told a press conference Sunday that 2,238 members, 42 more than the Ninth CPPCC National Committee, will attend this year's session.

The session, which lasts until March 14, will elect a new CPPCC leadership.

"The CPPCC leadership change follows the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which set the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way and saw a smooth transition of its central leadership,'' he said.

Zhang also noted that the number of CPPCC members from the private sector and from other new strata exceeds previous levels.

"The increasing of members from the non-State sector reflects the changes caused by the economic development, especially the recent fast development of the private sector,'' Zhang said.

According to the General Office of the CPPCC National Committee, there will be 33 leaders from major State-owned enterprises and 65 representatives from China's fledgling private sector and other non-State-owned firms on the 10th CPPCC National Committee.

Zhang said the implementation of a proactive fiscal policy, employment and social security are among the top issues that the committee members cared most this year, in view of proposals and speeches the committee has so far received.

The top 10 issues also include those concerning the reform of the State-owned assets management system, problems with regard to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, reform of the fiscal and financial systems, social credit, the development of the private sector and protection of private property, judicial fairness, social distribution and education reform, Zhang said.

Besides, some other urgent issues also deserve attention of the members of the CPPCC National Committee, such as problems concerning energy, construction projects and food safety, he added.

The secretariat of the session has so far received more than 360 proposals and 236 written speeches from members, he said.

The presidium of the first session of the 10th National Committee of the CPPCC held its first meeting in Beijing Sunday afternoon.

The meeting examined and approved a list of 14 executive chairpersons of the presidium and a list of chairpersons for the meetings of executive chairpersons. The meeting agreed to designate Jia Qinglin as the chairman of the meetings of the executive chairpersons of the presidium, Zhang said.

(China Daily March 3, 2003)