Government and Policy

Wide overseas coverage as China's annual sessions open

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-04 01:25

BEIJING – The economy and people's livelihoods have been the main focus of extensive overseas coverage of the annual plenary sessions this week of China's National People's Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

The Associated Press on Wednesday said this year's sessions are expected to "focus on economic policy, while many of the hot-button issues like soaring real estate prices in many Chinese cities are expected to get a full airing." The Chinese government, in its new annual budget, was expected to increase spending on education, welfare for the old and medical insurance, and develop the social security system, it added.

Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao Wednesday said in an editorial that medical, educational and other reforms would be widely discussed by NPC delegates and CPPCC members.

The Yomiuri Shimbun of Japan Wednesday said the NPC session was likely to further strengthen the development mode of boosting domestic demand, make efforts to realize the integrated development of cities and the countryside, and direct more solid and health economic development.

The Korea Herald said in an editorial that the main goal of the two sessions was to set down measures on economic transformation, and the sessions would also deal with a series of social and political topics such as soaring housing prices, fighting corruption, public health care and educational reform.

Yonhap news agency said the two sessions would take economic issues as its major topics, as the world is still staggering out of the global financial crisis. The Chinese government was seeking the transformation of the country's economic development mode, it added.

JoongAng Daily and The Choson Ilbo, South Korea's two leading newspapers, Tuesday issued reports on China's policies on macro-regulation, stabilizing the housing market, educational and medical reforms, as well as modification of election law.

Russia's Vremya Novostei newspaper reported Tuesday that an Internet poll before the two sessions showed high housing prices and fighting corruption were the two major issues on which the Chinese public is focusing their attention.

Sin Chew Jit Poh, Malaysia's biggest Chinese-language newspaper, will issue special pages to cover the sessions.