Expectations from NPC

For those familiar with the "big picture", the 2011 session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) that opens today may be more about macroeconomics than about anything else, because the road map for the 12th Five-Year Plan will assume center stage over the next 12 days.

Unfulfilled goals and proposals as general as balancing the "quantity and quality of growth" and restructuring the economy are likely to retain their prominent places in the guidelines to be laid out in the official documents. The same can be said about the Government Work Report, which Premier Wen Jiabao will deliver on the opening day.

It is logical and obligatory for an NPC session that opens and sets the tone for a new five-year national development program to focus on the big picture and economic orientation. But national lawmakers have to display strategic insight. It is important that they have a clear sense of direction that reflects national consensus, for that will determine the course of development for the next five years and beyond.