TALKING OVER PROPOSALS: CPPCC member and famousfilm director Zhang Yimou (center) discusses proposals with other members on March 5 (SU LU)

During the Third Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from March 3 to 13, members put forward 5,430 motions, offering suggestions on the country's major economic and social issues.

Proposal summaries follow:

Higher Incomes for Low-income Groups

(The Central Committee of China National Democratic Construction Association)

The proposal suggested a steady increase in farmers' incomes. It said that the government should set minimum purchasing prices for agricultural products and ensure the incomes of grain-growing farmers were not lower than those of people in non-agricultural sectors. In the meantime, the government should also accelerate the urbanization process, expand employment channels for rural workers and improve their employability.

The proposal called for a mechanism to regularly increase the salaries of enterprises' staff and workers. As to extraordinarily high income levels in monopolized industries, the proposal said that effective measures should be taken to oversee income distribution in those industries and introduce competition to break those monopolies.