It is the first time that the body has pooled suggestions from the public.

It is hoped that the suggestions will make the policy-making process easier and add wider wisdom to it.

Policy making should be based on the actual conditions of the country, conditions with which the public are familiar and should consequently have a say in. It should be an all encompassing procedure.

Without the involvement of the public, a major link in the process, the procedure would be segmented.

In this sense, the activity itself, which ensures a procedural completeness, holds more importance than which advice is accepted and which discarded.

Its significance also lies in its role of providing a more direct channel through which to satisfy the needs of both the policy drafters and the public.

Without the involvement of the people, policy-planning is done by just a small circle of experts.

With limited channels, it is not surprising that they might not receive all the advice or resources they need to create well-rounded policies.

At the same time people who want to have their suggestions on the development of the country heard may be discouraged by a lack of proper channels available to them.

This gap is an obstacle to the drafting of rational policies.

The central planning body's collection of public suggestions however, is filling that gap. And the collection should be extended to all policy-making processes in the future.

Unfortunately the public opinions collected may not have chance to help enrich the new five-year plan draft prepared for the National People's Congress session, to be opened early next month.

After the SDPC receives the suggestions, it will take a long time for it to assess them and single out those which will enrich the development plan.

In the future, it would be better if it carries out the collection earlier.

(China Daily 02/13/2001)