We will strengthen public administration and maintain harmony and stability in society. We need to pay special attention to safeguarding people's legitimate rights and interests, correctly handle problems among the people, properly deal with their complaints in a timely manner, and resolutely correct all actions that harm their interests. We will improve the mechanism for mediating, handling and resolving social tensions and guide the people in expressing their concerns relating to their interests by reasonable and lawful means. We will adhere to the system whereby leading cadres, especially principal ones, handle people's letters and receive people's visits in order to serve the people and resolve conflicts. We will improve the early-warning system for social stability to actively prevent and properly handle all types of mass incidents. We will launch intensive campaigns to ensure public security and maintain law and order through a full range of measures. We will be on high alert for and severely crack down on criminal offenses in accordance with the law in order to safeguard national security and social stability.

7. Intensifying government self-improvement and making the government better able to manage overall economic and social development

Achievements were made in reforming the government and intensifying its self-improvement over the past year, but they still fall considerably short of what the people expect. The functions of government have not yet been completely transformed. Administrative efficiency needs to rise. Formalism and bureaucratism are still pronounced. Corruption remains a serious problem in some localities, departments and areas. Tremendous effort is needed to solve all these problems. We need to focus on the overall objectives of sustaining economic growth, ensuring people's well-being and maintaining stability, and intensify the work of government self-improvement.

We will continue to run the government in accordance with the law. We will standardize government administration, ensure that our administration is based on law and reason, executed through proper procedures, highly efficient, convenient for the public, honest and trustworthy, and that authority and responsibility are united. We will thoroughly implement the Administrative Permit Law, continue to carry out reform of the administrative examination and approval system, reduce the number of items it covers, especially investment examination and approval and project approval, and ensure that enterprises make their own investment decisions. We will promote fair competition, break regional blockades and industry monopolies, and organize and mobilize all social resources to promote economic growth. By ensuring that all government departments fully and properly execute their functions, we will create a favorable environment for development, and increase enterprises' confidence in investment, individuals' confidence in consumption and people's confidence in the development of the country.

We will make decisions scientifically and democratically. In all decisions we make, the procedures need to be lawful and standardized, the process democratic and open, and the results scientific and equitable. In formulating and implementing major government policies and decisions, we need to conduct thorough research and studies, heed people's concerns, solicit their opinions, pool their wisdom, act in accordance with objective laws, and make our policies and decisions more foresighted, scientific and effective. We need to make government affairs more open and transparent. We will ensure the people's right to stay informed about, to participate in, to express views on, and to oversee government affairs, and keep them informed as to what the government is thinking and doing so that we can win their thorough understanding, wide support and active participation. The government is investing a large sum of money and launching numerous new projects this year, and we will ensure they receive proper oversight. We will prohibit image projects that waste both human and financial resources and vanity projects that are divorced from reality, and will never allow any organization or individual to exploit the surge in public spending for private gain. Governments at all levels must conscientiously subject themselves to the oversight by the people's congresses and the democratic oversight by the CPPCC committees at their corresponding levels. We will tighten professional oversight by supervision and auditing departments, and attach great importance to oversight by the public and the news media. We will strive to make sure that oversight takes place wherever administrative power is exercised and that government funds will be audited wherever they are used.

We will earnestly improve our conduct. Governments at all levels need to resolutely implement the policy decisions and arrangements of the central leadership, stay firmly grounded in reality, and work creatively to ensure all policies are carried out fully and effectively. Leading cadres need to conduct thorough research and studies to promptly discover and resolve problems, maintain close contact with the people, show concern for their sufferings, listen to their opinions, and help them solve their problems. Government employees need to always maintain high morale, embody a vigorous spirit and work with the people to meet challenges head on, break new ground through hard work and tide over bad times together.

We will strengthen our efforts to promote clean government and combat corruption. We will focus on standardizing institutions and limiting the exercise of power, and prevent and punish corruption at its source in areas and links prone to corruption. We will resolutely investigate and prosecute corruption cases and punish corruptionists in accordance with the law. We must discharge our duties with great diligence and, through our actions and achievements, build a government that is for the people and is pragmatic, clean and efficient to satisfy people's needs and win their trust.

Fellow Deputies,

Promoting unity among all ethnic groups and achieving common development and prosperity serves the fundamental interests of the people of all our ethnic groups. We will fully implement the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy and ensure that the policies and measures of the Central Government supporting economic and social development of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority areas are effectively implemented. We will continue to increase support to ethnic groups with small populations. We will expand coverage of the "bring prosperity to border areas and residents" campaign to all border counties and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps' regimental pastures and farms in border areas. We will support more rapid development of pastoral areas and ethnic minority mountain regions. We will unswervingly uphold national unity and further develop socialist ethnic relations based on equality, unity, mutual assistance and harmony.

We will fully implement the Party's basic principles on work related to religions and enable religious figures and people with religious belief to play a positive role in promoting economic and social development.

We will diligently implement the Party's policy on matters related to overseas Chinese nationals and support overseas Chinese nationals, returned overseas Chinese and their relatives in showing concern for and participating in the modernization and peaceful reunification of the motherland.