BEIJING, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's legislature is to conduct the first reading of three draft laws on food safety, state assets and social insurance later this month.

The 31st session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) was expected to convene from Dec. 23 to Dec. 29, according to a statement issued after a meeting of the chairman and vice-chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee on Monday.

The draft law on food safety has been a hot topic in China since 2005 due to increasing incidence of food scandal.

China now has a food hygiene law to regulate issues of food safety but many lawmakers said it does not meet the need of practice.

The draft, based on the food hygiene law, proposed a food safety risk supervision and evaluation mechanism. This was to provide a "key basis" for constituting food safety standards and food-born disease control measures and to set up related institutional systems covering food production, processing, delivery, storage and sales, according to a statement issued by the State Council on Oct. 31 when it passed the draft.

Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ), said last month that the draft law encouraged supervision from the public and media. It also tightened the penalty on producers that violated the law and relevant government departments that did not serve their duty.

A national campaign to improve food safety and product quality was ending in China on Dec. 25. The four-month action implicating various ministries and departments had covered the production and distribution of food.

Most of the goals set before the campaign have been fulfilled and the next task was to prolong the good situation by setting up an effective mechanism, Li said.

Draft amendments to the laws on frontier health and quarantine, the protection of cultural relics and individual income tax would also undergo a first reading, the statement said.

China was amending the law on frontier health and quarantine in response to the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) that took effect in June, according to Zhi Shuping, the GAQSIQ vice director, on the administration's official website in June.

The regulation, to control the cross-border spread of epidemics, such as plague, cholera and yellow fever, had added new duties to the government departments. Domestic laws and regulations also needed amending in line with it, Zhi said.

The WHO said on its website that the revised IHR established an agreed framework of commitments and responsibilities for states and WHO to invest in limiting the international epidemic spread.

Under the regulations, the states would be required to report all events that could result in public health emergencies of international concern.

During the session, lawmakers would continue reviewing the draft anti-drug law and the draft law on labor dispute mediation and arbitration. They would also review the draft amendments to the laws on road transport safety, science and technology progress, and prevention and control of water pollution.

They would also go through a report submitted by the chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on the outcome of the public consultation on the Green Paper on Constitutional Development. It also included whether to amend the methods for selecting the chief executive and for forming the Legislative Council in 2012.

The State Council, China's cabinet, would submit to the session three reports on health care system reform, food and drug quality supervision, protection of legal rights of employees and rural area development.

Source: Xinhua