By a wide margin, the Chinese "stock market" is the issue of greatest concern among netizens who took part in the online survey for the upcoming 2005 plenary session of National People's Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

The results are from two nationwide surveys undertaken in early February by two Chinese news portals CCTV.com and Xinhuanet.com.

Both listed 20 options and sought votes and opinions from the general public about the "hottest" topics at the upcoming two meetings.

Of the 163,822 votes received by Xinhuanet.com through yesterday, 76 per cent chose getting the stock market out of the doldrums.

The same topic received the top vote at CCTV 16 per cent of 59,142 voters.

Zhang Jisong, chief editor of the survey at CCTV.com, said the result expresses general dissatisfaction with the stock market, which has performed poorly.

"It is also because many of the netizens are engaged in the stock market," added Liu Juan, who is in charge of forums at Xinhuanet.com.

In a similar survey held by Liu's website last year, "anti-corruption" was the winner. This year, it receded to second, with 25 per cent of votes.

Also high on two lists were the topics of the "gap between the poor and rich" and " the anti-secession law."

"Agricultural issues" only ranked fifth at Xinhuanet.com and 14th at CCTV.com.

Zhang said the results represent people aged between 16 and 40 and may see big variation with additional voting through the end of the conferences. Most of the options selected by the websites are the same as each other except for three items, all being chosen out of "the most popular news and topics online last year," they said.

A similar survey is also going on at Southcn.com, a news website based in South China's Guangdong Province.

Different from the other two, the website lists more than 30 topics, some of which are closely related to the province's development.

"The gap between the poor and rich," "medical system reform" and "agricultural issues" so far have drawn the majority of votes, said Guo Qiongli, an editor at the website.

"Building a green Guangdong" and "constructing Guangdong from a scientific development perspective" ranked the fifth and sixth, she said.

With more than 1,000 participants so far, the survey will continue till March 15, when the NPC session ends.

The 10th National Com-mittee of the CPPCC, China's top political advisory body, will hold its annual session from March 3 to 12.

A total of 4,478 proposals have been raised by the CPPCC members since the previous session and more than 44 per cent of them are on economic development issues, according to a report.

The Ministry of Education received and handled 503 proposals forwarded by the CPPCC' National Committee.

These proposals reflect the suggestions and opinions of the ordinary people, said Education Minister Zhou Ji.

Concerning a proposal raised by 11 CPPCC members on the improvement of morality of the juveniles, the ministry launched large-scale discussions among schools and students, officials said.

Besides, there were a total of 204 proposals on agriculture last year.

The proposals focused on the improvement of rural labourers and income of migrant workers.

(China Daily March 1, 2005)