Two sessions media center up and running

Andrey Kirillov (center), of Russian news agency ITAR-Tass, and other journalists receive their press cards for the upcoming two sessions in Beijing on Tuesday. KUANG LINHUA / CHINA DAILY

The media center for the annual sessions of China's top legislature and advisory body stands ready to serve reporters from home and abroad.

So far, more than 3,200 journalists have registered to cover the sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which will convene in Beijing this week, according to the two sessions media center.

More than 1,000 of the journalists are from foreign media, slightly more than last year, Zhu Shouchen, deputy director of the media center, said on Tuesday.

"2016 is the start of China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) and also a key year for improving structural reforms," Zhu said. "On this occasion, the plan, supply-side reform, Chinese macroeconomic trends, RMB exchange rate, and the stock and real estate markets have been hot issues among media home and abroad."

The South China Morning Post recently reported that the world is looking forward to the upcoming Chinese sessions for information on the ways and direction of the economy this year.

Zhu said, "We have respectively opened a special zone for serving reporters on the NPC and CPPCC websites, and we will be working on coordinating their applications for interviews."

The media center will invite NPC deputies, CPPCC members, ministers and other officials from national government departments to participate in news conferences and answer reporters' questions during the sessions.

The media center, located in Beijing's Media Center Hotel, opened on Saturday.

In the center, reporters can use its public computer ports and free Wi-Fi and have interviews in the lobby, as well as drinks and snacks.