A symposium on the work of the national and local agriculture and rural affairs committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held in Southwest China's Chongqing on Dec 10 and 11. 

The symposium, attended by Yang Chuantang and Gu Shengzu, both vice-chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, was the first of its kind since the establishment of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the national committee. 

Yang said the symposium is both timely and significant, since it was held at a critical moment when the whole country is studying and implementing the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Communist Party of China Central Committee. 

He urged CPPCC members to embody this spirit by fully performing their duties and contributing their suggestions to the formulation and implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). 

CPPCC members should focus their consultations on national strategies such as overall rural revitalization and modernization of agriculture and the countryside and improve their work quality by defining target topics, innovating new mechanisms and streamlining processes, Yang noted. 

He also called on members of the national and local agriculture and rural affairs committees to further shoulder their political responsibilities and unite people from various sectors, in order to make new achievements in serving the strategies that affect farmers, agriculture and rural areas, or 'sannong'. 

Gu said the agriculture and rural affairs committees at all levels should center their efforts on sannong and poverty relief, and upgrade their working mechanisms with the help of the internet and other modern information technologies. 

He urged the committees to offer their advice on sannong while holding meetings to seek broad consensus.

The committees should also improve their investigations and surveys and keep closer ties with the people, so as to facilitate the implementation of policies rolled out by the central government, Gu added.