China's top legislature and political advisory body will start annual sessions this week, returning to their traditional March schedule after last year's events were postponed to May due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

As the year 2021 marks the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the world will watch how China, with the elimination of absolute poverty just declared, charts its course toward fully building a modern socialist country.

The fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is scheduled to open on Friday, a day after the opening of the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

In addition to hearing the annual work reports of the government, top legislature, top court and top procuratorate, lawmakers will also review a blueprint for China's development in the next five to 15 years -- the draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the long-range objectives through the year 2035.

The following are some of the issues expected to be high on the agenda of the two sessions.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, China was the only major economy in the world to register positive growth in 2020, with its GDP expanding 2.3 percent to hit 101.6 trillion yuan (about 15.7 trillion U.S. dollars) in the year.

On Friday when the government work report is delivered to the NPC for deliberation, this year's development goals will be closely watched.

Last year, no specific GDP growth figure was set in the government work report due to the uncertainty brought by COVID-19 and the world economic and trade environment.

Zhang Liqun, a research fellow with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said China's economy is resilient, has potential and will maintain sustained growth in 2021.

But he said the primary goal of economic development is not to seek a nice-looking GDP figure but to raise the quality of the growth and ensure people's well-being.

Major development targets listed in the 14th Five-Year Plan, including economic growth, newly created jobs in urban areas, major projects, as well as pollution control will also draw attention.