The Standing Committee paid close attention to self-improvement. Its members earnestly studied Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents and gained a thorough understanding of major strategic concepts such as the Scientific Outlook on Development and the building of a harmonious socialist society. Lectures on special topics related to the work of the Standing Committee were organized for their members to constantly improve their knowledge of the law and modern science and culture and help them improve their ability to perform their functions in accordance with the law. We improved the system for releasing information through the news media, successfully ran the NPC website and a television program on the law, and began live television coverage of meetings of the Standing Committee on the Internet, all of which made our work more transparent. Organs of the Standing Committee implemented the Civil Service Law, launchedan education campaign to foster the socialist concept of honor anddisgrace among its employees, stepped up efforts to improve the overall quality of their cadres, and constantly worked to consolidate and enlarge on the results of the education campaign to preserve the advanced nature of Party members. This improved our service attitude as well as the quality of our work.

Fellow Deputies,

Ever since this NPC was elected, you have been carrying the great trust of the people of all our ethnic groups, maintaining a high sense of responsibility toward the Party, the country and the people, and working conscientiously and wholeheartedly to fulfill your duties. You deliberated and approved bills, were active in submitting bills and proposals, enthusiastically participated in activities of the Standing Committee and strongly supported its work, thus making important contributions to efforts to improve the work of the NPC, uphold and improve the system of people's congresses, build a moderately prosperous society in all respects and create a harmonious socialist society.

Under the leadership of their respective Party committees, local people's congresses at all levels and their standing committees performed their duties in accordance with the law and made outstanding achievements in all their work. In addition, they did a great deal to assist the Standing Committee in carrying out inspections of compliance with the law and investigations related to legislation and in effectively serving you and carrying out foreign exchange work, as well as made important contributions to joint efforts to improve socialist democracy and the socialist legal system.

The special committees of the NPC attached great importance to self-improvement efforts, took full advantage of the skills, rich experience and other traits and strengths of their members, thoroughly studied issues, supported each other, coordinated their actions, worked hard and played an important role in improving the quality of the work of the NPC and its Standing Committee.

Fellow Deputies,

Under the leadership of the Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary, the Standing Committee made further advances in all fields of endeavor. These achievements were the result of your hard work and that of members of the Standing Committee, special committees and organs of the NPC, aided by the close cooperation of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the strong support of local people's congresses at all levels and their standing committees and the general public. On behalf of the Standing Committee, I would now like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you who contributed to this success.

In reviewing the work of the Standing Committee of the past year, we can clearly see that there are still some shortcomings. Better coordination is needed in some important issues in legislative work, oversight work needs to be made more focused and effective, the quality of the handling of deputy bills and proposals needs to be further improved, and the means and mechanisms for doing work related to you need to be further improved. We must pay close attention to these problems and adopt effective measures to address them.

Major Tasks for This Year

The current NPC, together with its Standing Committee, will complete its term of office in 2007. The Seventeenth National Congress of the Party will be held this year, and our many tasks for the year will be arduous. The general requirements for the work of the Standing Committee are as follows: We must take Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as our guide, fully put into practice the Scientific Outlook on Development and diligently follow the guiding principles set out at the Sixteenth National Congress of the Party and at the third through sixth plenary sessions of the Sixteenth Central Committee. We must uphold the organic unity of the leadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country and the running of the government according to the rule of law, uphold and improve the system of people's congresses, focus on the overall work of the Party and the government in carrying out our duties, strive to meet the objectives of all tasks of the current NPC and continue to contribute to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and creating a harmonious socialist society. To satisfy these requirements, we must work even harder and build on the foundation of our work of the last four years to do honor to our mission and successfully complete all our work for this year.

I. We will strengthen social legislation and ensure that the goals for legislation are met.

The current NPC and its Standing Committee set as its goal for legislation to basically complete establishment of a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, focusing on improving the quality of legislation, and formulated a five-year legislation program to meet that goal. Over the last four years we passed amendments to the Constitution, promulgated and implemented the Anti-Secession Law, and formulated or revised 70 laws and made interpretations of or legal decisions concerning legal issues, resulting in the completion of a number of legislative items that were fundamental in nature, were urgently needed and for which conditions were ripe, thereby making very good progress in legislative work. At its Sixth Plenary Session the Sixteenth Central Committee clearly called for improving legislation to develop democratic politics, guarantee the rights of citizens, promote social programs, strengthen the social safety net, standardize people's organizations and improve public administration. This made new demands on the NPC's legislative work. While continuing work to improve economic legislation, we must also concentrate on strengthening legislation related to social programs to provide powerful legal guarantees for the building of a harmonious socialist society and to ensure attainment of the legislative goal of the current NPC.