China's top legislature will give interpretations on Annex I and Annex II of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in its next meeting from April 2 to 6.
A meeting of the National People's Congress Standing Committee chairman and vice chairmen held in Beijing on Friday set the schedule for the upcoming meeting.
The members of the NPC Standing Committee will deliberate the draft of interpretations on Article 7 of Annex I and Article 3 of Annex II of the Basic Law, involving Hong Kong's political development after 2007, suggested by the meeting of chairman and vice chairmen.
The meeting decided that the draft will also be presented to the Committee for the Basic Law of HKSAR under the NPC Standing Committee for consultation in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Basic Law of HKSAR.
The chairmen's meeting also decided on other items of the agenda for the scheduled meeting, which included:
-- first considering the draft amendment to the law governing prevention and control of infectious diseases, the draft law concerning online signatures, and the draft amendment to the system of participation of the people's assessor.
-- considering the draft amendment to the foreign trade law for the third time.
-- hearing a State Council report on the establishment and improvement of the national quick response mechanism to deal with public health emergencies.
-- considering a report on the inspection of law enforcement on scientific and technological progress.
Today's meeting also passed the main arrangements of the Standing Committee's work in 2004, the plan of inspections on the law enforcement and ten work reports of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
Legislation is still the top priority on the list of the Standing Committee, which plans to examine 20 draft laws in 2004.
It also has made arrangements on publicizing the amended Constitution and on the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National People's Congress.
The law enforcement inspections planned by the meeting include the laws on land management, animal epidemic prevention, compulsory education, trade unions and statistics in 2004.
(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2004)
