Lawmakers and political advisers have arrived from around country

Thousands of national lawmakers and political advisers have arrived in Beijing for the "two sessions", a key annual event on China's political calendar.

The first sessions of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the 13th National People's Congress will convene on Saturday and Monday, respectively.

Deputies from Heilongjiang province were the first to arrive on Friday.

Lawmaker Zhai Qingbin from Heilongjiang said poverty alleviation was among the topics he was concerned about most. "More targeted measures should be taken to identify the poor people and lift them out of poverty," said Zhai, an agricultural entrepreneur.

Deputy Zhou Chaohong, from Tianjin, said he would propose integrated control over water pollution in the region of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

NPC deputies are elected by people's congresses in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. The armed forces elect their own. Deputies from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan follow separate election rules decided by the NPC.

Being the first such sessions following the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, they are crucial to victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects and implementing the country's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

At the legislative session, deputies will deliberate a draft revision to the Constitution. The draft incorporates major theoretical achievements, principles and policies adopted at the 19th CPC National Congress, particularly Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

A national supervisory commission is expected to be established as part of China's anti-corruption drive.

China also will have a new leadership lineup. The leadership for the next five years will lead the nation to lay the foundation to achieve the goal of becoming a "great modern socialist country".

China has set 2020 as the target year to achieve poverty eradication, with GDP and per capita income doubling from 2010 levels.

A total of 68.53 million rural people over the past five years have seen their fortunes transformed, with the national poverty rate falling from 10.2 percent to 3.1 percent.

There were still 30.46 million rural people living below the national poverty line at the end of 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Guo Naishuo, an NPC deputy from Jilin province, said industries should be developed to prevent people falling into poverty again.

He also suggested health stations at residential communities to better serve the neighborhood, to reduce people's medical bills and save resources of top public hospitals for the critically ill.

As for the GDP target, China needs annualized growth of 6.3 percent in 2018-20, according to the office of the central leading group on financial and economic affairs. Its economy expanded 6.9 percent in 2017.

China announced more efforts to deepen supply-side structural reform to attain high-quality development at the central economic work conference held at the end of 2017. The tone-setting meeting also listed "pushing forward a new pattern of all-around opening-up" as a priority.

Financial risk prevention, targeted poverty alleviation and pollution control have been described by the Chinese leadership as the "three tough battles".

A hard-line stance on irregular and illegal activities in the financial industry was also announced at the central economic work conference.

China has declared the principal contradiction the country faces as the one between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing need for a better life.

Su Quanke, a member of the CPPCC National Committee, has advanced a proposal to facilitate rural road construction.

A package of policies to see a strong agricultural sector, a beautiful countryside and well-off farmers was unveiled in the first central document of the year.

"These issues are all aspects that address the principal contradiction of China," Su said.

Xinhua