Fu Ying (C), spokeswoman of the National People's Congress (NPC) session, addresses the press conference on the fourth session of the 12th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 4, 2016. [Photo/China.org.cn]

There are two principle objectives of this year's convening of the National People's Congress, China's annual parliamentary session, in early March in Beijing. One is around the 13th Five Year Plan starting this year. The contents of this are already well known, and the purpose of the NPC is in effect to approve the Plan, and make it part of the public policy infrastructure. This, after all, should be the framework within which all areas of government work need to be conducted, from national level down to its local articulations at provincial and prefectural level. It supplies the overarching macro-economic narrative for the country in the coming half a decade.

The second function is its normal one - to convey clearly what government priorities in the coming year are. China is entering an era of uncertainty. The greatest contributor to this is the flat-lining of GDP growth. Inside and outside the country, the annual GDP rates have always been seen as a major, if not the major, barometer of national development and progress. Of course, this has been a great simplification. The Chinese economy is far too complex to capture in one figure. But double digit growth from 2001 did neatly convey the sense of optimism and dynamism if nothing else. Its decline has been accompanied by rising worries inside and outside China about where the national economy is heading.

This nervousness in public sentiment is best symbolized in the recent volatility of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Of course, steep rises and falls of stock exchanges anywhere are not unusual. Between 2000 and 2004, Shanghai composite index lost over 40 percent of its value. But the combination of falling GDP and uncertainties elsewhere in the economy are well reflected in the nervousness the markets have shown within China and the anxieties of investors who are less confident about banking on tomorrow in ways they have been in the recent past.

For domestic audiences, therefore, the more confident and clear the government can be in its messages over this NPC, the better. It has to make clear to Chinese, and those outside the country, that there is a clear vision from the leadership, despite the recent travails, and that they know what they are doing, where they are going, and why they are doing what they are.