The Standing Committee tightened its oversight of economic work such as the implementation of budgets, the implementation of plans for national economic and social development, and macroeconomic regulation. At the same time, the Standing Committee mainly worked on oversight in the following five main areas: 1) solving serious problems related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, centering efforts on promoting the building of a new socialist countryside; 2) working to achieve goals for energy conservation and emissions reduction, centering on efforts to build a society that is resource-conserving and environmentally friendly; 3) improving the country's capacity for independent innovation, centering on efforts to build an innovative country; 4) addressing the problems of most concern to the people, centering on efforts to promote fairness in the judicial system; and 5) solving problems of great concern to the public, centering on efforts to build a harmonious socialist society.

The Standing Committee always attached great importance to solving the problems affecting agriculture, rural areas and farmers. Three years in a row, beginning in 2003, the Standing Committee identified grain security and protection of farmland as the breakthrough points for improving conditions for agriculture, rural areas and farmers to address the drastic reduction in the area sown to grain and the excessive appropriation of arable land for nonagricultural purposes. After 2006, the focus of oversight for efforts to solve the problems affecting agriculture, rural areas and farmers was once again shifted to comprehensive efforts to build a new socialist countryside in accordance with the strategic arrangements of the central authorities. During the past five years, the Standing Committee organized four campaigns to investigate enforcement of the law and heard four work reports. Thanks to the concerted efforts of all localities and quarters, China's grain production has steadily risen four years in a row, rural per capita net income has risen from 2,622 yuan in 2003 to 4,140 yuan in 2007, rural infrastructure and the living conditions of rural residents have steadily improved, and real progress is being made in building a new socialist countryside.

Another constant focus of the oversight work of the Standing Committee is the problems affecting resources and the environment. For several years in a row we have identified attainment of the goals for energy conservation and emissions reduction as the key to overseeing work in the area of resources and the environment. We concentrated on improving oversight of energy conservation and the prevention and control of water and air pollution and solid waste pollution, urged concerned parties to truly pay close attention to problems affecting resources and the environment and promoted realization of the goals for energy conservation and emissions reduction contained in the Outline of the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development. We made strengthening the country's capacity for independent innovation the focus of efforts to make China an innovative country in order to address the relatively small contribution of advances in science and technology to economic growth, excessive dependence on foreign technology and inadequate investment in scientific research. We called on concerned parties to fully implement the guiding principles set out at the National Conference on Science and Technology and the Outline of the National Program for Long- and Medium-Term Scientific and Technological Development.

The investigation of enforcement of the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy and the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Returned Overseas Chinese and Their Relatives was the first such investigation since these two laws were implemented. We put the focus of the investigation of the enforcement of the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy on promoting economic and social development in ethnic minority areas and called on concerned parties to waste no time in formulating and improving supporting regulations and policies to truly increase assistance for ethnic minority areas and ethnic minorities, especially ethnic minorities with small populations. We put the focus of the investigation of enforcement of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Returned Overseas Chinese and Their Relatives on improving the poor living and working conditions of the 300,000 employees of overseas Chinese farms and suggested the approach of solving this longstanding problem in stages, effectively promoting the reform and development of these farms.

It should be pointed out here that the Standing Committee promptly adjusted its oversight plan in response to the sudden outbreak of SARS and highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2003 and 2004 respectively. We listened to and deliberated special work reports from the State Council, investigated the implementation of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the Law on the Prevention of Animal Diseases and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Solid Waste Pollution, and called on concerned parties to set up and put into operation a contingency mechanism for responding to public health emergencies.

2. We constantly improved oversight means. During its oversight work the Standing Committee discovered problems in the work itself, problems related to the law and certain problems that were accumulated over time. In order to make our oversight work more focused, we deliberately combined the deliberation of special work reports with investigation of law enforcement, combined efforts to improve our work with efforts to revise and improve laws, and concentrated on improving follow-up oversight. For problems in the work itself, we urged concerned parties to improve their work to solve those problems. For problems related to the law, we promptly revised the relevant statutes, thereby strengthening legal guarantees for corresponding work. For key problems and difficult problems that are of great concern among deputies, we carried out repeated investigations and worked to completely resolve them. The constant improvement in oversight means made the oversight work of the NPC more focused and full of vitality.

One problem of great concern to people in recent years has been the great difficulty and expense of getting an education. To address this problem, we carried out an investigation in 2004 into enforcement of the Law on Compulsory Education and made two important suggestions, one to set up a mechanism for guaranteeing adequate funding for the operating expenses of compulsory education and the other to revise the Law on Compulsory Education. The State Council promptly worked out a draft revision of the Law on Compulsory Education at the suggestion of the Standing Committee. When we deliberated this draft revision, we heard and deliberated special work reports on making compulsory education more widely available and developing competence-oriented education in 2006. Then in 2007 we carried out an inspection to see how the newly revised Law on Compulsory Education was being enforced, focusing on how well the mechanism for guaranteeing adequate funding for the operating expenses of compulsory education was being implemented. This gave a strong boost to implementation of the Law on Compulsory Education and improvement in the distribution of compulsory education across the country.

Prevention and control of water pollution is a daunting and long-term task. We adopted a number of ways to continuously track and oversee the serious problem of constantly worsening water pollution. In 2004 we heard and deliberated a special work report on the conservation, protection and wise use of water resources. In 2005 we conducted an investigation into the enforcement of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution and the Water Law. In conjunction with hearing and deliberating a special work report on the state of the water environment and efforts to prevent and control water pollution, in 2006 we again investigated the implementation of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution. In conjunction with hearing and deliberating a special work report on efforts to save energy and protect the environment, in 2007 we carried out a follow-up inspection to again check on efforts to prevent and control water pollution in the areas around the Huaihe and Liaohe rivers.

3. We strived to improve the effectiveness of oversight. The NPC's oversight of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate is oversight with the force of law carried out in the name of the country and the people. We are always subservient to and serve the work of the Party and the state, carry out our activities in accordance with the law and prescribed procedures and exercise our responsibilities and powers collectively. We submit pertinent and practicable comments and suggestions based on thorough survey and research work and a great deal of firsthand information, working to urge concerned parties to solve problems that have become common and seem to indicate an unhealthy trend and to urge them to set up a permanent mechanism to address such problems. The State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate pay close attention to the comments and suggestions of the Standing Committee and have done a great deal of painstaking work to address them. With the concerted effort of all parties involved, real progress has been made through the oversight work of the NPC in solving certain problems with an overall impact that have long awaited resolution.

We promoted resolution of the problem of arrears in export tax rebate payments. The Standing Committee carried out thorough surveys and studies and then made three suggestions to the State Council in 2003: The first was to make sure that from now on all tax rebate payments are paid on time. The second was to use surplus revenue from the Central Government budget to clear up longstanding arrears as soon as possible. The third was to reform the tax rebate mechanism. In accordance with the recommendations of the Standing Committee, the State Council took a total of 242.2 billion yuan from the surplus revenue four years in row to clear up longstanding arrears and promptly passed a decision to reform the export tax rebate system. These efforts have contributed greatly to the resolution of the problems of arrears in tax rebate payments.

We promoted resolution of the problem of wages in arrears for rural migrant workers in cities and other workers. Inspection of the enforcement of the Construction Law and comments submitted by ordinary citizens through letters and visits revealed in 2003 that there was a problem of wages in arrears for rural migrant workers in cities. The Standing Committee called on governments at all levels and concerned departments to adopt effective measures to solve the problem. Through inspection of enforcement of the Law on Labor Unions and the Labor Law, we clearly suggested basic resolution of the problem of long overdue employee wages and payments to the social security fund by the end of 2007. Statistics show that as of the end of 2006 all wages due to rural migrant workers in cities in arrears since 2003 or before, totaling 33.7 billion yuan, had been paid. As of the end of 2007, most provincial-level localities had basically solved the problem of long overdue employee wages. A small number of these localities with old industrial bases in their jurisdictions where the task of clearing up long overdue wages was particularly heavy expect to basically clear up the arrears in the first half of 2008.

We promoted improvement in production safety. In 2005 we inspected the implementation of the Law on Production Safety. The Standing Committee clearly proposed that the number of major large-scale gas explosions in coalmines should be greatly reduced within about two years and that strong efforts should be made to resolve the problem of small, illegal coalmines within three years to address the serious problem of coalmine safety in China. The State Council attached great importance to this proposal and promptly called an executive conference to carry out a special study and make arrangements for production safety work. As of the end of 2007, 11,200 small illegal coalmines had been closed. The number of major, large-scale gas explosions was down 46.3 percent and the number of fatalities down 65.4 percent in 2007 compared to the figures for 2005.