The Great Hall of the People of China on Tuesday turned into a place of peoples' representation as the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, is holding its annual meeting which will continue till March 11.

President of China Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders attended the opening meeting of the second session at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

He also stressed developing new quality productive forces for the overall development of the country.

Premier of the State Council of China Li Qiang presented the report on the work of the government at the week-long second session.

Setting a goal to focus on high-quality development, the report said China will create over 12 million jobs in urban areas, and keep the surveyed urban unemployment rate at about 5.5 percent within 2024.

The country also plans to spend 1.66554 trillion yuan (around 234.5 billion U.S. dollars) on defense, up 7.2 percent, and set an inflation target of about 3 percent seeking to achieve a GDP growth rate of around 5 percent for 2024, the report said.

The agendas are to deliberate the report on the work of the government, review the report on the implementation of the 2023 plan for national economic and social development and on the 2024 draft plan, and the draft plan for national economic and social development in 2024, review the report on the execution of the central and local budgets for 2023 and on the draft central and local budgets for 2024, and the draft central and local budgets for 2024, deliberate the bill put forward by the NPC Standing Committee on reviewing the draft revision to the Organic Law of the State Council,  the work report of the NPC Standing Committee, work report of the Supreme People's Court, work report of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Over 2.7 million deputies at the five levels of people's congresses, including nearly 3,000 deputies have their representation in NPC as it is designed to include people from various backgrounds and cover a diverse cross-section of society.

Deputies at various levels are key channels for people's voices and are entitled and obliged to stand for the people's interests and express their requests.

Every ethnic group has its NPC deputy or deputies. NPC deputies submit motions and are the voice of the people they represent.

At the annual full session, they review and vote on important legal documents and personnel changes, such as the election of the president and vice president of China every five years, in addition to submitting proposals while the NPC Standing Committee will exercise its power, holding sessions to deliberate and adopt laws, among other matters.

When not in session, they interact with the people, take up training programs, and participate in inspections of law enforcement and research on important or urgent issues. Some of them are invited to observe bi-monthly legislative sessions of the NPC Standing Committee, a permanent body of the NPC.

NPC is the highest organ of State power and China's top legislative body while its permanent body is the Standing Committee. Each congress is elected for a 5-year term.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the NPC. Since Sept. 15, 1954, when about 1,200 deputies elected by universal suffrage gathered in Beijing to attend the first session of the first NPC.

It deliberates and passes major laws, decides on major issues, and supervises the work of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.