China's parliament endorses government work report

BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), on Sunday endorsed the government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao.

Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), presides over the closing meeting of the Third Session of the 11th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 14, 2010. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Wen's report was approved with 2,836 votes from the 2,909 NPC deputies present at the closing meeting of the parliament's annual session.

The report underlines people's livelihood and sets the economic growth target at about 8 percent this year.

Wen said in the report at the opening meeting last week that the government needs to guide all sectors to focus on transforming economic growth pattern and restructuring economy.

He said that 2010 is a "crucial year" for continuing to combat the global financial crisis, maintaining "steady and rapid" economic development, and accelerating the transformation of growth pattern.

It is also an important year for achieving all the targets of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) and laying a solid foundation for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), he said.

Other key economic and social targets included creating more than 9 million jobs in cities, keeping urban registered unemployment rate under 4.6 percent and keeping the rise in consumer prices at about 3 percent.

Listing key government tasks, Wen said it will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and continue to implement the stimulus package which was unveiled in late 2008 that included a 4-trillion yuan (585.5 billion U.S. dollars) two-year investment.

The State Council made 15 modifications, including 7 major ones, to the report according to opinions of lawmakers and political advisors.

One of the major changes is removing the phrase "grey income" from the report. Wen said in the report on March 5 that, "We must outlaw illicit incomes and regulate grey incomes to gradually develop an open and transparent income distribution system."

Lawmakers said "grey income" is hard to define, and it sparked heated debate among lawmakers and netizens.