BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) endorsed an amendment to the Party's Constitution on Oct. 21, enshrining the scientific outlook on development, which was formulated to balance the country's growth.

    The following are some major key facts about the formation process of the amendment:

    --In December 2006, many local and central Party organs advised to make appropriate changes to the Constitution when the CPC Central Committee were making initial preparations to set agenda for the 17th CPC National Congress.

    --The Political Bureau of the CPC's Central Committee officially decided to amend the Constitution in March 2007 after investigation and research by several Party organs. The Central Committee soon established a special group for the amendment, headed by Wu Bangguo, a member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee.

    --On March 24, the Central Committee started to solicit suggestions and opinions on the amendment from Party organs at all levels throughout the country.

    --The amendment group, consisting of more than 20 people from central Party organs, commenced working from April 4.

    --The Central Committee received 116 practical suggestions in early April, and the group put forward an amendment scheme based on the suggestions.

    --The Political Bureau Standing Committee deliberated the scheme twice in May and June, and raised major revision proposals.

    --The Political Bureau approved the amendment scheme at a meeting on June 15.

    --In July, the Central Committee solicited suggestions and opinions on the scheme from 5,560 party members.

    --In August, 125 written reports from local and central party organs were submitted to the Central Committee, raising more than300 items of suggestions on the revision, and the amendment group was then asked to make further improvement.

    --On September 17, the Political Bureau approved an amendment edition to be submitted to the seventh plenary session of the16th CPC Central Committee.

    --The plenary session, which was opened on Oct. 9, made suggestions for further improvement, and eventually decided to submit the edition to the 17th CPC National Congress for approval.

    --Delegates to the 17th CPC National Congress made further suggestions before the amendment was endorsed at the closing session of the congress.