"We members of the CPPCC are deeply concerned about issues related to people's livelihood. Since the members come from all walks of life, it's our important responsibility to understand and report the social conditions and public opinions," said Wu Jianmin, spokesman of the Fifth Session of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at a press conference held in Beijing on March 2.

When uttering this, Wu spoke with pride.

"To illustrate what I have mentioned, I would like to give you some examples," Wu continued. "The first is about the housing problem."

According to Wu, since the First Session of the 10th CPPCC National Committee, 157 members have issued more than 40 proposals, calling for speedy establishment of low rent houses in urban areas so as to solve the housing problem for low-income families in cities.

After the CPPCC session last year, the Minister of Construction held a meeting with some CPPCC members to discuss this problem. The Ministry of Construction, Committee for Handling Proposals of the CPPCC, Central Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association and some other units held many discussions, heeding opinions of CPPCC members from all sides and actively accepting their opinions. The Ministry of Construction made clear that the low rent house system will be established in all cities and counties by this year.

"The second example is the problem of subsistence allowance in rural areas," Wu continued.

Wu said that CPPCC members care for rural poor people very much. Last year, the Subcommittee of Social and Legal Affairs of the CPPCC believed, after investigation, that the time is ripe for establishment of a subsistence allowance system nationwide. In the members' calculation, at present there are 23.7 million poor people in the country's rural areas, and with the objective of providing 300 yuan to every poor person adopted in pilot regions in 2005, only 6 billion yuan is needed to establish subsistence allowance system in all the rural areas.

"When this suggestion was put forward to related departments of the State Council, it received adequate attention from the responsible officials and was adopted. In November 2006, the Ministry of Civil Affairs determined to promote establishment of a nationwide subsistence allowance system in rural areas. The central budget will provide certain subsidies to the regions with financial difficulty," said Wu Jianmin.

"The third example is that railway ticket prices were not increased around the Spring Festival this year," Wu said.

According to Wu, since 2004, 197 members issued 47 proposals on the effects of price hikes involving railway passenger transportation around the time of the Spring Festival. Officials of the CPPCC and related government departments attached great importance to the problem these proposals are concerned with.

In July 2005, Wang Zhongyu, Vice Chairman of the 10th CPPCC National Committee, convened with related government departments to discuss this problem and the CPPCC National Committee also held many discussions with departments such as the Ministry of Railways. Thanks to efforts from various departments, newly released pricing policy has brought about more benefits to common people.

"I have made a rough estimation that over the past year, the number of proposals on health care and education have surpassed 900, nearly one fifth of the total number of proposals. It is enough to prove that CPPCC members are deeply concerned about issues related to people's livelihood," added Wu.