Today's agenda:
-- NPC deputies will hold a plenary meeting and group meetings to deliberate the government work report and review the draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for national economic and social development and the long-range objectives through the year 2035.
-- CPPCC National Committee members will hold group meetings to discuss documents including the government work report, the budget report, and the draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for national economic and social development and the long-range objectives through the year 2035.
Xi stresses new development philosophy, ethnic unity during legislative session
Xi Jinping on Friday joined discussions with fellow lawmakers from north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
He called for efforts to build Inner Mongolia into a national base for key energy and strategic resources, a production base for agriculture and animal husbandry, and a gateway for northward opening up.
Electoral reform well-received in HK
Support for a draft decision by the nation's top legislature on improving Hong Kong's electoral system poured in on Friday as various sectors of the city hailed the move as "necessary" and "of great significance" in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development.
Minister assures stable fiscal policy
The "people-centered" fiscal policy will remain basically stable, without any sharp shifts, Finance Minister Liu Kun said during a news conference on Friday.
Unlike last year, the fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio and the local government special bond quota targets will decline, but still be higher than the level in 2019, he said.
China will improve the efficiency and quality of its proactive fiscal policies to make it more sustainable, while ensuring that the prudent monetary policy is flexible and targeted, according to the annual Government Work Report.
Growth target 'well within China's capacity': U.S. experts
Douglas H. Paal, senior researcher of the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said China's growth aim for 2021 is "reasonable" against last year's level, which, standing at 2.3 percent, made China the world's only major economy registering positive growth amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.
"It indicates a return to normal, and it will be a plus for the global level of economic growth," Paal said.
"With this target, China will be the fastest growing large economy in the world, essentially an engine of growth for everyone else," said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
