China's top legislator urged national lawmakers to diligently fulfill their responsibilities in advancing the goals of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) and to work collectively toward the continuous promotion of Chinese modernization.

"Formulating and implementing five-year plans is a key experience in the governance of the country by the Communist Party of China. It represents a significant political advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics," said Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, as China's top legislature wrapped up its annual session on Thursday.

President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, and other leaders attended the closing meeting, which was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

At the meeting, lawmakers approved the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for national economic and social development.

Zhao noted that the period of the 15th Five-Year Plan is crucial for laying a solid foundation and making comprehensive efforts toward the basic realization of socialist modernization, emphasizing the importance of effectively implementing the outline of the plan.

He encouraged NPC deputies to work diligently and effectively, ensuring a strong start to the plan and progressively transforming the vision into reality.

In addition, he reiterated the need to implement whole-process people's democracy, urging deputies to maintain close ties with the public and provide legal safeguards for achieving the plan's goals and tasks.

Hou Yongzhi, an NPC deputy and a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, said he noticed the significant improvement in the development concepts outlined in the newly approved plan.

The outline clearly states the need to improve living standards, increase consumer spending and combine investment in physical assets with investment in human capital. Hou said that investing in people involves focusing on people's needs for a better life by increasing investment in education, healthcare, elderly care and other public service sectors.

The focus should also be on "national strategies and industrial upgrading needs, strengthening talent cultivation in high-end manufacturing and key core technology fields, and enhancing support for scientific innovation and industrial development", he told Economic Information Daily.

Rock Chen Chung-nin, an NPC deputy from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said that the 15th Five-Year Plan outlined how China aims to make further progress in its financial system and how Hong Kong can leverage its own strengths to help the nation achieve that goal.

As a Hong Kong lawmaker from the financial sector, Chen pointed out that many Chinese mainland technology startups show strong promise and can make use of Hong Kong's capital markets. "As I work in the financial industry and capital markets, we can help more good mainland information technology companies list in Hong Kong," he said, adding that Hong Kong can support such enterprises throughout different stages of growth.

At the closing meeting, national lawmakers passed the Ecological and Environmental Code, the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law and the National Development Planning Law. Xi signed presidential orders to promulgate the laws.

They approved a report on the execution of the central and local budgets for 2025 and on the draft central and local budgets for 2026, and approved the central budget for 2026.

Lawmakers also voted to adopt resolutions on the work reports of the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

They also adopted a decision on approving the report of the NPC Standing Committee on the work of the overhaul of laws and the proposed handling of certain laws and decisions. Xi signed a presidential order concerning the decision.