NPC annual session to open Sunday

BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, is set to open Sunday morning and conclude on the morning of March 13, a spokesperson said Saturday.

Apart from the reviewing of a series of reports including a government work report, NPC deputies will deliberate on a draft amendment to the Legislation Law and a plan on the reform of the State Council institutions, Wang Chao, spokesperson for the session, said at a press conference in Beijing.

The session will also elect and decide on members of state organs, Wang said.

The election of deputies to people's congresses in China is the largest-scale democratic election in the world, Wang said, calling it a good testament to China's whole-process people's democracy.

He noted that the deputies are broadly representative and a considerable share of the deputies come from the grassroots.

Among the 2,977 deputies to the 14th NPC, 442 are from ethnic minorities, accounting for 14.85 percent of the total and covering every one of the 55 ethnic minority groups, Wang said.

A total of 42 deputies represent those overseas Chinese who have returned to the motherland. Altogether 790 are women who make up 26.54 percent of the total, and 497 are workers and farmers who account for 16.69 percent of the total, he said.

Some 200,000 deputies' centers and liaison offices have been set up nationwide, basically covering all towns and communities, to serve as platforms where deputies can listen to people's voices and help them address difficulties and concerns, according to Wang.