The Shanghai's annual two sessions' on-site consultation operation gets under way at the Lin-gang Special Area [Photo by Zhang Ying/WeChat account: shlgguanweihui]

The fifth session of the 15th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress kicked off on Jan 24 – with the consultation services of the meeting this year switching to having an online operation, in recognition of the need to maintain tight the novel coronavirus containment and prevention.

In the past, the organizations of Shanghai would set up booths at the conference site and provide consultation.

Deputies to the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and members of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference can carry out online communications and interact with various parties, make suggestions and submit their proposals through a network platform this year.

The Lin-gang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was also ready for the two sessions on Jan 23.

The Lin-gang Special Area Administration selected heads of each department or officials who know the overall work of the department and are ready to answer question in front of computers. Officials made sure that every question or suggestion got a tangible response within five minutes.

There are five computers at the meeting place of the two sessions, which were debugged the day before the sessions.

The telephones of other department heads of the administration were also been kept unblocked to answer questions online at any time. Thirty officials with masks were on standby and took turns to answer.

According the statistics of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPPCC, as of the morning of Jan 22, 407 proposals had been received. Of these, 299 were individual proposals and 108 were collective proposals. The proposals included a continuing focus on the Lin-gang Special Area.

In addition to the government's advice, the Lin-gang Special Area is also keeping the public opinion receiving channels unblocked at all times.

An official answers questions online. [Photo by Zhang Ying/WeChat account: shlgguanweihui]