China's top political advisers have urged the establishment of a
partnership between government and non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) in a bid to speed up the transformation of government
functions.
They said NGOs should be given a greater scope to help the
government rectify defects of a market economy and serve as a
stabilizing force to ensure social justice.
"It's neither reasonable nor practical to expect the government
to address all problems in society," said Wang Ming, a member of
the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
"For such a country as China still in a transition from a
planned economy to a market one, the help from NGOs will prove
especially important."
Wang, also director of the NGO Research Centre of Tsinghua
University, told China Daily that the Chinese government
has encouragingly realized the increasingly important role of NGOs
in providing major social services.
As a key sign of the positive change, Premier Wen Jiabao vowed
on March 5 to turn over responsibility for more activities the
government should not be engaged in to enterprises, NGOs and
intermediary agencies.
It was the first time the central government clearly underscored
the significance of NGOs in its annual work report to the National
People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.
The premier also stressed that the government must pay more
attention to social administration and public service work while at
the same time working to better regulate the economy and oversee
the market.
"All these moves indicate that the government is taking active
steps to loosen its monopolizing role in providing social services
while trying to create greater operating room for Chinese NGOs,"
said Yang Haikun, another CPPCC National Committee member.
He added that the dedication of NGOs to resolving social
problems will contribute a lot to realizing the government's goal
of building a country based on "small government and big
society."
Yang, an expert on administrative law, noted that NGOs can play
an important part in environmental protection, helping the needy
through poverty alleviation and public welfare.
"The solution to all these problems, resulting from the defects
of a free-market economy is beyond the capability of any
government," he told China Daily in an exclusive
interview.
"But NGOs, most of them non-profit and public-interest groups,
can gather private and public-good resources to fund non-profitable
public service that the market fails to provide."
Steve K.W. Chan, a CPPCC National Committee member from Hong
Kong, said that the participation of NGOs in public-welfare work
has won greater acceptance by both the Chinese government and the
public.
For instance, cash-starved rural education has been lagging far
behind urban education in China due to lack of State funding,
according to Chan, also chairman of Coca-Cola China Limited.
But some Chinese NGOs, including the China Youth Development
Foundation, have solicited large donations from domestic and
overseas individuals and enterprises to help ease the capital
shortages in rural education.
Chan's company itself has so far donated over 35 million yuan
(US$4.2 million) to set up 56 Project Hope primary schools
nationwide and fund thousands of rural students.
Despite the increasing role of NGOs in China, these CPPCC
National Committee members pointed to an embarrassing fact that
Chinese NGOs are now operating with limited resources and
influence.
At present, there are only 134,000 social organizations
registered as NGOs and such organizations have to register as
non-enterprise units or public institutions due to the rigid
registration system.
That's why China's NGOs in broad terms should also include
110,000 private non-enterprise units, 1 million grassroots
organizations and 320,000 public institutions, according to Wang
Ming of Tsinghua University.
The current regulations on NGOs require such organizations to
have a governmental department or semi-official body as its sponsor
for registration but lack definition in the practical management
issues of NGOs.
The restrictions, which make it hard for most of Chinese NGOs to
seek funding through various channels, have led to financial
hardships for them, Wang said.
Jia Xijin, a public administration expert at Tsinghua
University, said the government should first relax its control over
the registration of NGOs to facilitate their establishment.
Meanwhile, legislation should keep up with the needs of NGOs
development to ensure a favorable environment for their operation
such as raising funds, the researcher said.
He also urged the government to lend more support to NGOs by
introducing more preferential policies, such as tax reduction or
exemption, to encourage more donations and grants to the
organizations.
(China Daily March 14, 2004)