Departments in China's central government attach great importance to suggestions and comments by members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's national advisory body.

The CPPCC National Committee held a workshop on Friday to hear reports by officials of six ministries on the handling of proposals delivered by national political advisors over the past five years, prior to the forthcoming First Session of the 11th CPPCC National Committee.

These departments have worked hard on the proposals and a number of officials have been specially assigned to them, according to the speakers.

So far, these ministries have received 23,081 proposals from national political consultants, with 99.13 percent being well handled or given an official reply from the relevant government department.

Some CPPCC National Committee members attending the workshop said they were more careful about the issues of difficulty faced by the country's farmers, the financial sector, urban and rural development, medical services, social welfare, education and development of science and technology.

The officials' reports had helped them understand what the government had done in the fields of their interest, the advisors said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2008)