China has decided to streamline the annual sessions of the country's top legislature and top advisory body and cut dining and boarding expenses in a bid to reduce cost, as the unfolding global financial crisis is taking a toll on the world's third largest economy.

The 2009 session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will last nine days, starting tomorrow." Zhao Qizheng, spokesman for the session, told a press conference in Beijing Monday afternoon.

With a more efficient agenda this year, the 9-day CPPCC session, down from 11 days last year, is "the shortest in CPPCC history," as Xinhua cited Zhao as saying on Sunday.

As China's top advisory body, the CPPCC is slated to convene Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing, while the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, will meet two days later.

Accommodation expenses will also be reduced.

Dining expenses for NPC deputies and CPPCC members from the mainland are capped at 100 yuan (US$14.6) a day, reported the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po, citing a person familiar with the situation. They are required to live in hotels rated four stars or lower.

The CPPCC members from different provinces and regions will stay in several designated hotels in Beijing to reduce transportation expenses, Zhao explained.

Some hotels will not offer toiletries either, unless asked, noted on the manual of a Beijing hotel, designated for lodging the CPPCC members.

Also, electronic proposals are preferred over paper ones, Zhao said on behalf of the organizing committee of the two sessions.

Against the backdrop of the spreading global financial crisis, this year's two sessions are required to be "economical and environmentally-friendly," maintaining "a zero increase in expenditures," according to the Wen Wei Po.

(China Daily March 3, 2009)