There was a stately and warm atmosphere in the magnificent Great Hall of the People. In the dome of the Great Hall, the lights were shining bright as stars, and in the middle of the curtain on the rostrum hang the brilliant national emblem, on both sides of which were ten bright red flags. Nearly 3000 NPC deputies came from all parts of China, who are entrusted by the 1.3 billion Chinese people to attend the meeting and exercise the sacred right endowed by the Constitution and other laws.

The meeting was presided over by WU Bangguo, standing and executive chairman of the presidium. Seated in the front row at the rostrum were standing and executive chairmen of the presidium WANG Zhaoguo, LI Tieying, Simayi.Aimaiti, HE Luli, DING Shisun, CHENG Siwei, XU Jialu, JIANG Zhenghua, GU Xiulian, RE Di, SHENG Huaren, LU Yongxiang, Wuyunqimuge, HAN Qide, and FU Tieshan.

Seated at the rostrum were HU Jintao, JIA Qinglin, ZENG Qinghong, HUANG Ju, WU Guanzheng, LI Changchun, LUO Gan and members of the presidium.

At 9 am, WU Bangguo declared the Third Session of the Tenth NPC opened. All participants stood up amid the national anthem, played by the military band.

WEN Jiabao delivered the work report at the meeting on behalf of the State Council. The report has seven parts: I. Review of the Last Year’s Work; II. General Plan for the Year 2005; III. Maintain Steady and Fairly Rapid Economic Development; IV. Push Forward Economic Reform and Opening-up; V. Actively Develop Social Undertakings and Build a Harmonious Society; VI. Improve Governance Capacity and Political Work Style; VII. Adhere to the Road of Peaceful Development and an Independent Foreign Policy of Peace.

WEN Jiabao said that we strived forward by successfully meeting new challenges and tests in 2004. There emerged some problems in our economy in the past two years, in particular the strained relationship between the supply and demand of grains, inflated investment in fixed asset, too quick monetary credit, and inadequate supply of coal, electricity, oil and transportation. If not checked, local problems may evolve into national ones. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council considered the situation and made the timely decision to strengthen macro-control. The Chinese leadership acted in a decisive, timely and proper manner with regard to specific circumstances and practical effect, and took effective measures to solve the outstanding problems that affect the steady and fairly quick development of the society and economy, making comprehensive use of economic, legal and necessary administrative means. Through the concerted efforts of the whole country, macro-control has produced marked results. The unstable and unhealthy factors in economic operations have been suppressed, and the weak points have been strengthened, which avoided drastic ups and downs in the economy. The achievements of the past year were reflected in following respects: the economy kept growing at a steady and fairly quick speed; the overall national power increased; reform made significant progress and opening-up achieved new breakthrough; social undertakings grew fast and living standards improved.

In his report, WEN Jiabao summarized last year’s work of the government in six aspects: taking more direct and stronger policy measures to increase grain production and farmers’ income; controlling overheated development in fixed asset investment and strengthening the weak points; seizing every opportunity to push forward economic restructuring and furthering opening-up; increasing policy support and fiscal input to promote social undertakings; making great efforts to improve the people’s life and paying great attention to solving the outstanding issues that affect the interests of the people; enhancing democratic legal construction and trying the utmost to safeguard social stability.

WEN Jiabao said that the past year’s great achievements resulted from the strong leadership of the CPC Central Commit with Mr. HU Jintao as the General Secretary, which mastered the general situation as a whole. Those achievements were also stem from the concerted efforts of all nationalities. All localities and sectors of the whole society have worked hard and made their contributions.

WEN Jiabao pointed out that we must keep a clear mind that there are still problems and difficulties in our socio-economic development and shortcomings in the work of the government. He said that we should pay great attention to these handicaps and continue to take measures to overcome them. We should enhance our awareness of our difficulties and hardships, strengthen our sense of responsibility, guard against conceit and rashness, keep exerting ourselves, forge ahead in spite of difficulties, keep doing a good job and never let the people down.

WEN Jiabao pointed out that 2005 would be a critical year to complete the task of the “Tenth Five-Year Plan” and to lay a sound foundation for the development of the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”. In order to complete all this year’s tasks of socio-economic development, the following three aspects should be well arranged and dealt with: I. exercise proper macro-control; II. promote reform and opening-up; III. build a harmonious socialist society.

WEN Jiabao noted that work in the following four aspects must be properly done in this year’s economic development: persist in strengthening and improving macro-control; further emphasize the issue of agriculture, rural areas and farmers; speed up economic restructuring and the transformation of income modes; promote coordinated regional development. Talking about promoting economic reform and opening-up, WEN said greater efforts should be made in economic reform to make new breakthroughs in major areas and key links; continue to push forward rural reform; further the reform of the state-owned enterprises; encourage, support and guide the development of non-public economic sector; step up financial reform; promote reform of the taxation system and the investment system; improve the construction of the market system. WEN emphasized that we should adapt to the new situation and do well in opening up.

WEN Jiabao pointed out that in adopting the scientific development perspective, we must try our best to carry out the strategy of “Revitalizing China through Science and Education”, the strategy of “Strengthening China with Talents” and the strategy of “Sustainable Development”; we must promote the development of social undertakings, persist in solving outstanding issues that concern the interests of the people in general, promote democratic legal construction, safeguard social stability, and build a harmonious socialist society. WEN further emphasized that further measures be taken to guarantee safety in production.

WEN Jiabao put forward requirements in six aspects to speed up the reform and improvement of the government itself: further the reform in government institutions; quicken the transformation of government missions; improve the means and ways of economic management; build a service-orientated government; raise the capacity of administration in accordance with the law; strengthen the political work style.

WEN Jiabao also elaborated on issues concerning our national defense and armed forces, Hongkong, Macao, Taiwan and Chinese foreign policy. He pointed out that we should do whatever is conducive to the cross-straits relations and peaceful reunification. “The Anti-secession Law (Draft)” which will be reviewed during this meeting fully demonstrates our maximum sincerity and greatest efforts for peaceful reunification, signifying that all Chinese people share a common will and determination to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity and never allow Taiwan being separated from China in any name or way by secessionist forces of “Taiwan independence”. We should work together with our Taiwan compatriots for reunification of the motherland!

During the 2 hours and 3 minutes when WEN Jiabao delivered the report, the great hall resounded again and again with warm applauses.

In addition, some documents were distributed at the meeting, including the State Council’s “Report on the Implementation of the 2004 National Economic and Social Development Plan and 2005 Draft Plan for National Economic and Social Development”, and the “2005 Draft Plan” itself; Submitted to the meeting for review were the State Council’s “Report on the Implementation of the 2004 Budgets of Local and Central Governments and 2005 Draft Plan for the Budgets of Local and Central Governments”. It was explained that the agenda arrangement of the meeting had been improved so that no plenary session was arranged to hear the reports on draft plans and draft budgets. Instead, such reports were printed out and distributed for review and examination, which not only saved a plenary session but also helped improve the efficiency and quality of the review.

Also seated on the rostrum were WANG Lequan, HUI Liangyu, LIU Qi, LIU Yunshan, WU Yi, ZHANG Lichang, ZHANG Dejiang, CHEN Liangyu, ZHOU Yongkang, YU Zhengsheng, HE Guoqiang, GUO Boxiong, CAO Gangchuan, ZENG Peiyan, WANG Gang, XU Caihou, HE Yong, TANG Jiaxuan, HUA Jianmin, CHEN Zhili, XIAO Yang, JIA Chunwang, WANG Zhongyu, LIAO Hui, LIU Yandong, Pabala.gelielangjie, LI Guixian, ZHANG Siqing, DING Guangxun, MA Wanqi, BAI Lichen, LUO Haocai, ZHANG Kehui, ZHOU Tienong, HAO Jianxiu, CHEN Kuiyuan, Abdul’ahat Abdulrixit, XU Kuangdi, LI Zhaochao, HUANG Mengfu, ZHANG Huaixi, LI Meng and members of the Central Military Commission LIANG Guanglie, LI Jinai, LIAO Xilong, CHEN Bingde, ZHANG Dingfa and JING Zhiyuan.

TUNG Chee Hwa, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and HE Houhua, Chief Executive of Macao Special Administrative Region attended the meeting as nonvoting members and were seated at the rostrum.

Members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) who were present at the Third Session of the Tenth National Committee of the CPPCC attended the meeting as nonvoting members

Leading cadres of relevant departments organs under the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the PLA, the Armed Police Force and civil organizations attended the meeting as nonvoting members or observers.

Diplomatic envoys to China attended the meeting as observers.（Xinhua Net）