Premier Li Keqiang stressed at a State Council executive meeting on Feb 17 that a modern government should respond to people’s expectations and concerns in a timely manner.

The meeting focused on a work report on the implementation of the National People’s Congress (NPC) motions and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) proposals in 2015.

“For the proposals from the NPC and the CPPCC, authorities must make sure each of them is implemented and responded to,” the Premier urged.

“It is both an important part of the democratic system construction in our country and a significant component of law-based governance and construction of a rule-of-law government,” he added.

Proposals from NPC and CPPCC are vital channels for the government to learn about public opinions, and implementation of the proposals is a crucial platform for the government to respond to public opinions and improve credibility, said Premier Li.

“The government should not only implement and respond seriously to proposals from NPC and CPPCC, but also actively respond to prominent and central issues that the public are concerned about, so that people can have a stable and good expectation of society and the market,” he stressed.

After hearing the work report about how the proposals were implemented, the Premier asked representatives of NPC and CPPCC at the meeting for their opinions.

“Only if you approve can the report be proved realistic,” he said.

The report said that since March 2015, 12,810 proposals have been implemented by the State Council and 1,138 related policies and measures were introduced; 98.5 percent of deputies to NPC and 97.3 percent of members of the national committee of CPPCC are “satisfied” or “basically satisfied” with the implementation results.

In response to the Premier’s inquiry, representatives of NPC and CPPCC said they approve of the statistics and are satisfied with the implementation.

Although all 12,810 proposals were implemented by the end of last year, the implementation of 29 of those was not completed until after Sept 30, missing the deadline set by CPPCC.

In response, the Premier urged that proposals from NPC and CPPCC should be implemented on time, and for problems that are particularly difficult, authorities must present an explanation and give timely replies.

“Authorities must clearly explain to NPC and CPPCC in a straightforward and down-to-earth manner which problems have already been solved, which are being solved, and which are very difficult to be solved in a short time,” said Premier Li.

“The proposals contain enormous public wisdom and opinions, and administrative departments must implement them seriously and adopt them actively, so as to comply with public opinions and aspirations in a real sense,” he added.

Besides proposals from NPC and CPPCC, the Premier urged that the government should also actively respond to other issues that the public are concerned about.

“It has been found that the government can win the public’s understanding if it discloses information in an active and timely manner and actively respond to public concerns when major incidents occur. However, if it tries to cover up and fails to publish authoritative information on time, public criticisms or even rumors will arise,” said Premier Li.

He reiterated a request he made during a State Council executive meeting three days earlier for ministers and heads of institutions under the State Council to actively hold or attend news conferences.

“A very important sign of ‘a modern government’ is that it responds to people’s expectations and concerns on time,” said the Premier.

He called on authorities to reveal information to the public and respond to public concerns in an active manner, so that people can have confidence in society and a clear expectation from the market.