March 5
Presided by Wu Bangguo, the administrative and executive chairman of the Congress Presidium, the fifth session of the Tenth National People's Congress opened today. On behalf of the State Council, Wen Jiabao presented the Report of the Work of the Government. He state that the major goal of economic and social development in this year is: to increase GDP by 8% basing on structure optimization, efficiency improvement, cost reduction and environment protection. According to the counting of the journalists, in the Report, central financial input relating to people's livelihood reached 477.8 bil. yuan.

March 6
Wang Zhibao, member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that China's current population of absolute poverty, whose annual per capita income is less than 683 RMB yuan, has decreased to 21.48 mil., with a reduction of 2.17 mil. last year. Meanwhile, the population of low-income, whose annual per capita income is less than 958 RMB yuan, has decreased to 35.5 mil., with a reduction of 5.17 mil..

March 8
The Information Office of State Council issued the Human Rights Record of the US in 2006 in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006 issued by the US State Department. This is the eighth consecutive year that the Information Office of the State Council has issued human rights record of the United States to answer the U.S. State Department annual report.

March 12
According to Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the Ministry of Public Health, by the end of 2006, there had been 1451 counties that developed pilot projects of new rural cooperative medical system, accounting for 50.7 percent of the total number of counties across China.

March 16
The fifth session of the Tenth National People's Congress closed in Beijing. The Draft Property Law of the PRC was approved with an overwhelming voting result.

March 26
The "Health Express for Mothers--Hand in Hand Safety Protection Project" was activated in Beijing. 40 expresses would go to Xinjiang, Chongqing, Hebei and Guangdong to provide the mass of women with health concept, health knowledge and health services.

March 27
Yuan Yanpeng, the vice minister of the Ministry of Labour of Social Security, revealed that China's supervisory system of labour guarantee had covered over 27 million employing units and more than 300 million labourers. Last year, labour supervision and law enforcement had made relevant employing units sign retroactive labour contracts with 12.434 million labourers, and reissue 5.75 billion yuan as payment to labourers.

March 27-28
The sixth working conference for letters and calls was held in Beijing. Wen Jiabao, the Premier of State Council, said that the work of handling letters and calls was a crucial link in all tasks of the Party and the government. He said that on behalf of the Party and the government, organs for letters and calls do mass work directly, relieve worries and troubles for the mass, eliminate contradictions for the society, and promote harmonious development of the society.

March 29
The General Affair Office of State Council issued the "11th Five-Year Plan for Causes of Ethnic Minorities". The guiding ideology and overall goals of developing ethnic minorities' causes were established, and 11 major tasks and 11 key projects were raised in the Plan.