According to Mr. Zeng, the NPC and its standing committee have revised laws and regulations that do not adapt to the new situation, under which China is accelerating its pace in establishing a market economy.

In the mean time, NPC has strengthened its supervision over state management in order to maintain market order, ensure fair competition, and crack down on counterfeit goods and smuggling, thus protecting a sound and healthy economic development.

To guarantee sustainable social progress, legislative work has been stepped up by the NPC in environmental protection and upgrading the environmental protection technology.

To expand China's opening-up and fully realize its commitment to WTO, the NPC has amended relevant laws and improved laws pertaining to foreign trade and cooperation, providing a better legal environment for China's opening-up drive.

Zeng said that for the amendments to Marriage Law, the NPC has sponsored many seminars and meetings to solicit advices and suggestions from the experts. Moreover, the whole text of the draft law was published on newspaper to solicit more suggestions from common people. So far, more than 3,800 proposals have been obtained.

The past year saw NPC paying more attention to safeguarding Chinese people's human rights. The NPC has adopted the Extradition Law and ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, one of the most substantial international instruments on human rights. Another covenant on human rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, signed by the Chinese government is still under examination of the legislative body.

(CIIC by Guo Xiaohong 03/05/2001)