Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

LOCAL political advisers officially start their annual meeting of the municipal political advisory body today, ushering in the city’s “two sessions,” which are deemed to be an important window for citizens to observe and understand Shenzhen and a key platform to pool citizens’ voices.

The “two sessions” are the annual meetings of the local legislature and political advisory body, where the elected deputies and advisers from all levels and all fields discuss the local political, economic and social developments in the past year and make proposals for the year to come.

The annual meeting of the local political advisory body, the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), begins today and will run through Friday, while the meeting of the local legislature, the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress, will commence tomorrow and run until Saturday.

This year, the proposals submitted by local political advisers are as wide-ranging as ever, and zoom in to examine social issues that are of the utmost interest of the people as well as the city’s development.

Jiang Lei, a political adviser from Bao’an District, is concerned about the interests of female employees regarding their maternity leave.

“My proposal is that the full amount of the wages of female employees be paid by social security funds during their maternity leave,” Jiang told reporters as he registered for the annual session yesterday.

Jiang hopes that his proposal will solve the problem of wage payment during the maternity leave of female employees and reduce the burden on enterprises, so as to achieve the elimination of gender discrimination in employment.

Actress Ruxianguli is a political adviser from the city’s literary and arts circle. In an interview, she praised the efficiency of the city government in handling proposals submitted by political advisers.

“Each procedure is closely linked and the feedback is given in a timely manner. This is Shenzhen speed,” she said.

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Ruxianguli has put forward a proposal on improving the criteria for identifying talents and strengthening the introduction of high-level literary and artistic talents in Shenzhen.

“Shenzhen should constantly introduce first-class talents from the literary and arts circles while building the 10 new cultural facilities, which will greatly promote the cultivation of Shenzhen’s urban cultural heritage,” she said.

Political adviser Zhang Xiaoli has submitted two proposals on the occupational disease prevention and mental health of children. He believes that Shenzhen should set a better example for the country in terms of health protection for primary and secondary school students.

Zhang proposes to further improve the mental health screening tools for primary and secondary school students and strengthen the professional supervision of psychology teachers.

According to statistics, in 2019, the city’s political advisory body organized 134 research and inspection activities, held four special consultative meetings and 187 consultative symposiums, formulated 46 research-based reports and handled 489 proposals, actively fulfilling its functions of giving suggestions and engaging in political consultation.