Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers a government work report on the opening day of the third session of the 12th National People's Congress in Beijing, March 5, 2014. [Photo/china.com.cn]

Foreign experts were for the first time invited to give opinion on the drafting of the government work report, said the leader of the team responsible for drawing up the report.

The Southern Metropolis Daily quoted Ning Jizhe, head of the research office at the State Council, as saying on Friday that professionals from Belgium, Germany, Japan, Singapore, the UK and the United States were involved in the drafting of the report.

The report was delivered by Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday at the opening meeting of the National People's Congress annual session in Beijing. The team started to draw it up last summer and it was revised and finalized by the premier.

According to Ning, there are some innovations in the way the government work report was drafted this year, by taking advantage of support of think tanks as well as modern technologies such as the Internet, big database and cloud computing to enrich its content, data and phrases.

In addition to seeking opinions from Chinese experts, central and regional government officials, city and county party chiefs who were receiving training in Beijing were asked to make comments on it.

What is notable is that for the first time this year, the research office of the State Council worked with the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs to host seminars to hear comments from foreign experts.

Also for the first time, Web users were asked to give suggestions when drawing up the report. The website of the Central People's Government launched a campaign along with a number of other Web portals to encourage netizens to leave their comment to the team in charge of drafting it.

Ning said that more than 40,000 opinions were from both China and overseas, with dozens of them directly added into the report.

One of the new features of this year's report, Ning said, is its frames and format. The work report is divided into six parts this year, compared with three parts in 2014, which elaborates on deepening reform and opening-up policies, economic development, improving living standard and promoting social development, and enhancing governance in the last four parts.

The report highlighted the reform and opening-up, the importance of developing economy and improving people's livelihood, covering the sectors of employment, social welfare and income, education, medial service and health, culture, innovation in the society, as well as environment protection, Ning said.

The team made most of the revisions on the part related to economic development, because it draws greatest attention and new economic figures kept being added as the NPC session draws near.