3) We conducted friendly international exchanges at all levels.

We actively engaged in high-level exchanges with the parliaments of Russia, the Republic of Korea, India, France, and Hungary and received 49 parliamentary or other delegations from countries including Pakistan, Italy, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. We gave play to the role of the NPC's Foreign Affairs Committee as a window for international exchanges, and encouraged the relevant special committees and working committees to engage in exchanges with their counterparts in foreign parliaments. With a view to deepening pragmatic cooperation and promoting the alignment of the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative (the Belt and Road Initiative) with the development strategies of the relevant countries, we engaged in a continued effort to foster policy and legal environments that are more conducive to cooperation by stepping up policy coordination and providing stronger legal guarantees. We also encouraged mutual learning, drawing on the experience of other countries with reference to our key legislative items.

During our international exchanges, we resolutely safeguarded China's sovereignty, security, and development interests. On numerous occasions and in a variety of ways, we publicized the path, theory, and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, informed the outside world of China's achievements in development, explained the meaning and significance of the Chinese Dream, and shared the story of the NPC, thereby winning China more understanding, trust, and support from the international community.

8. We redoubled self-improvement efforts.

Attaching primary importance to enhancing theoretical competence and fostering political integrity, we armed ourselves with Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping's major policy addresses, and used them to guide our practice and work. As a result, we have further strengthened our confidence in the path, theory, and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and fortified our shared ideals and convictions. Following in-depth study of the Three Stricts and Three Honests, we have become more purposeful in acting in line with them when carrying out the work of the NPC. In a persistent effort to improve our style of work, we continued to improve our meeting culture and style of writing, and actively carried out investigations and studies. We also advanced our effort to improve Party conduct, uphold integrity, and fight corruption, striving to foster a positive, upright, and clean working atmosphere. We continued to implement the system of collective study among members of the Leading Party Members' Group of the Standing Committee, and made good use of Standing Committee seminars to comprehensively raise our capacity to think and act in accordance with the rule of law as we carry out our work and strive to resolve problems. The bodies of the NPC, by earnestly following the requirements of the Three Stricts and Three Honests, made comprehensive improvements with regard to their political integrity, organization, work style, and institutions, thereby being able to give full play to their role as an advisor, assistant, and service-provider in the work of the NPC.

The Standing Committee strengthened leadership over the work of special committees while emphasizing the need to maximize their role. The special committees earnestly performed their legally mandated duties and functions in light of the actual conditions and carried out a large number of highly effective initiatives. First, they ensured the implementation of the legislative plan formulated by the Standing Committee. They led the efforts to draft legislation such as revisions to the Seed Law, the Securities Law, and the Wildlife Protection Law, and submitted the drafts for deliberation as prescribed by law. They were also involved in the drafting of laws by other state organs at an early stage, and produced reports after careful deliberation. The Law Committee, in particular,enhanced its unified deliberation of drafts of legislation, adopted comments and suggestions from all sectors of society, and built up broad consensus on legislation. Second, with a focus on oversight topics selected by the Standing Committee, the special committees organized and conducted inspections of compliance with laws, carried out in-depth research on selected topics, made pragmatic and pertinent comments and suggestions, and conducted follow-up oversight over the adoption of comments issued by the Standing Committee. The Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, by strengthening analysis of economic performance, did a good job examining the government's 2015 draft plan for national economic and social development as well as draft budgets and final accounts in accordance with the law. Third, they conscientiously examined deputies' proposals, urged the relevant government departments to redouble their efforts in the handling of deputies' key suggestions, and strived to deliver a sound performance in international exchanges and the deliberation of treaties, thereby making a positive contribution to improving the work of the NPC and its Standing Committee.

Fellow Deputies,

The achievements made by the Standing Committee last year came under the correct leadership of the CPC Central Committee headed by General Secretary Xi Jinping. They were the result of the hard work of NPC deputies, members of the NPC Standing Committee and special committees, and the staff of all NPC bodies; the close cooperation of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and local people's congresses at all levels and their standing committees; and the full trust and great support of all of China's people. On behalf of the Standing Committee, I would like to express our highest respect for and sincere gratitude to them all.

Looking back on our work over the past year, we realize that there are still some deficiencies that have caused us to fall short of the new requirements for advancing the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy in a coordinated manner, as well as the new expectations of deputies and the general public. We need to ensure that the NPC better plays its dominant role in the legislative process; devote major efforts to making our oversight more effective; improve and better implement systems enabling deputies to play their roles and maintain close ties with the people; address our inadequacies in carrying out research at the community level and responding to the concerns of the public; strengthen theoretical research on the system of people's congresses; and achieve new progress in the NPC's information and publicity work. Taking these problems seriously, we must listen to comments and suggestions from deputies and all sectors of society with an open mind, willingly subject ourselves to oversight, and consistently improve our work.