Opening Remarks by Dr. Zhao Baige
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 2, 2012
Ladies and gentlemen:
Good morning.
It's a pleasure for me to attend today's press conference and meet all the media friends. Here on behalf of Red Cross Society of China, I would like to thank the mass media as well as all journalist friends for your consistent support. Now, I would like to make a brief introduction of the "Opinions of the State Council on the Promotion of Red Cross Cause Development".
Since the founding of the P.R.C., especially after the reform and opening-up, the Red Cross Society of China have made great efforts in advocating the spirit of "Humanity, Fraternity and Dedication", providing humanitarian services, improving the lives of the vulnerable, and promoting social harmony and stability. China has made strong progress in economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological terms, which lays a solid basis for the cause of Red Cross to build on; however, the facts of unbalanced economic development among different regions, frequent natural disasters, and complicated social contradictions have raised higher expectations for the Red Cross work. Lately, the Opinions of the State Council on the Promotion of Red Cross Cause Development (hereafter referred to as "the Opinions") was promulgated by the State Council, which is the guiding document for further promotion of Red Cross undertaking and is of landmark significance in directing the development of Red Cross at present and for a long time to come.
Ⅰ. Positioning of the Red Cross
The Opinions clearly recognizes that the RCSC, as the united Red Cross national society in the People's Republic of China and an important member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, abides by the Constitution and laws of China, follows the fundamental principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and carefully performs its statutory duties according to the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols to which China has acceded. The Opinions also confirms that as an auxiliary to the government in the humanitarian field, the Red Cross Society of China plays an important role in contributing to China's economic and social development, constructing our harmonious society, and facilitating the progress of cultural civilization and people-to-people diplomacy.
Ⅱ. Role of the Red Cross
As confirmed by the Opinions, the Red Cross cause is a part of the socialism with Chinese characteristic. The Red Cross Society of China has been playing an irreplaceable role in serving the overall economic and social development, providing and facilitating services like emergency relief, first aid, humanitarian assistance, non-remunerated blood donation, hematopoietic stem cell donation, body and organ donation, international humanitarian assistance, and people-to-people diplomacy. As a social aid organization, the Red Cross has unique advantages in carrying out humanitarian aid, reflecting people's livelihood needs, and resolving social contradictions.
Ⅲ. Reform and Innovation of the Red Cross
Three requirements are brought up by the Opinions. Firstly, an organizational structure that is aligned with China's socialist market system as well as the international humanitarian principles should be set up, and an efficient, transparent and normative management system should be established on the basis of reform and improvement of Red Cross governance, innovation of management model and democratic decision-making and strengthening of executive capacity. Secondly, organizations of all levels of Red Cross must adhere to the rules of information disclosure, make the information of funds-raising, financial management, bidding and procurement, and funds allocation public and transparent, respect the rights of donors and the public to know and supervise, and build up openness and transparency with information-based means by including the informatization of Red Cross into the local informatization undertakings of all regions. Lastly, a comprehensive supervision system must be established to integrate self-monitoring with the government as well as civil watchdogs, and meanwhile supervision and auditing authorities are required to strengthen monitoring over the Red Cross and set up performance assessment and accountability mechanisms.
Ⅳ. Legal Obligations of the Red Cross
The Opinions provides support for the fulfillment of legal obligations of the Red Cross from five aspects. Firstly, the Opinions emphasizes the establishment of an emergency rescue system to guarantee Red Cross capacity in pooling social resources to carry out emergency rescue missions both home and abroad in legal term; it further advocates the strengthening of disaster preparedness work and the establishment of specialized disaster response teams based on the capacity of volunteers. Secondly, the Opinions requires that a long term Red Cross emergence rescue training mechanism should be established, so as to give full play to the leading role of the Red Cross in public-participated first aid trainings and to support Red Cross training in prioritized areas and professions. Thirdly, the Opinions advocates assistance programs that conform to humanitarian purposes and aim at vulnerable groups. Fourthly, the Opinions encourages the promotion of voluntary donation of blood, hematopoietic stem cell, and body and organ. Lastly, the Opinions advocates for more Red Cross participation in international humanitarian programs, integration of Red Cross international operations into the overall national international aid system, and more exchange and cooperation with counterparts from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Ⅴ. Team building of the Red Cross
The Opinions brings up four requirements on team building of the Red Cross. Firstly, with respect to organizational development, it is required that municipal and county-level networks should be strengthened and voluntary organizations in rural areas and communities and schools be established. Secondly, with respect to legal person management system, the Opinions requires that the personnel of Red Cross Council and Executive Council be optimized, enhance the executive capacity of the Executive Committee, improve the expert advisory system and democratic decision-making systems so as to strengthen the decision-making and monitoring. Thirdly, with respect to the building of talent team, the Opinions stresses the innovation of talent selection system and encourages the enrichment the Red Cross' management and professional staff through professional means such as public employment and competitive tests. Lastly, with respect to the team of volunteers, the Opinions requires that the Red Cross's voluntary work be included into the overall voluntary service planning of local authorities and a voluntary service system comprising different specialized sectors be set up.
Ⅵ. Social Environment Required for the Red Cross' Development
The Opinions requires that favorable environment of law, policy, and public opinion should be created. With respect to legal environment, the Opinions points out that the oversight of enforcement of the Red Cross Law must be under strict supervision to ensure legal guarantee of the Red Cross work. At the same time, the Opinions aims at improving relevant laws and regulations to investigate and punish acts of illegal use or abuse of the Red Cross emblem.
Ⅶ. Funds Management of the Red Cross
The Opinions brings up four requirements with regard to the funds management of the Red Cross. Firstly, the Red Cross must manage governmental grants and public donation separately. The costs for carrying out humanitarian work supported by donated funds can be disbursed but must be made known to the public and must be limited in terms of amount and purpose. Secondly, governments of various levels should, according to the legal functions of the Red Cross, increase their financial support in a gradual manner to guarantee the Red Cross' ability to perform its legal duties. Thirdly, the mechanism of service purchase should be set up, under which the government is the buyer that is supposed to purchase service from social organizations such as the Red Cross, so as to guarantee a sustainable Red Cross cause. Lastly, a performance evaluation mechanism must be set up to ensure efficient use of fund.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Opinions is a guidance document for the Red Cross development in the new era, outlining the RCSC's nature, positioning, core businesses, direction of its reform and supporting measures. With the implementation of the Opinions, the RCSC will uphold its humanitarian mission, and make due contribution to the overall national economic, political, social, cultural and ecological development based on its widespread network, strong force of mobilization and extensive connections with the public.
The legitimacy of the RCSC's activities stems from threefold empowerment. The first is the empowerment by the state. According to the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Red Cross Society and Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of China, Red Cross organizations at all levels in China are a favorable auxiliary to the government, and carries out its responsibilities and obligations as conferred by relevant domestic laws. Government provides support and grants to the Red Cross and oversees its work; The second is the empowerment by the public. Based on legal principles of civil entrustment or public trust, the RCSC is entrusted by the public such as donors and Red Cross members to perform its humanitarian rights and duties, and in the mean time accepts the oversight of the public and the news media; The third is the empowerment by the International Movement. In light of the International Humanitarian Law, particularly the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols have rendered, the RCSC, abiding by the fundamental principles of the International Movement, carries out it work independently, performs its obligations and enjoys its right as a member of the Movement.
Looking into the future, reform is a must for the Red Cross Society of China to cope with various challenges. Reform is the only way to address the myriads of challenges we face and to better prepare to meet the humanitarian needs. I would like to share with you the three priorities of RCSC to implement the Opinions and further reform in near future.
The first priority is to speed up institutional innovation so as to provide a sound foundation for long-term development of the Red Cross. The Opinions indicates clearly that "to establish a system that corresponds with the socialist market economy system and international humanitarian values", this is where we should go. Institutional innovation implies three aspects: first, to establish a proper relationship with the government. To be a good auxiliary to the government in the humanitarian field, more efforts shall be made to gain support from government at all levels in various ways including legal support, planning, policy and investment etc. Supervision from the government is welcomed. Second, to establish cooperation and partnership involving government departments, social organizations, enterprises, media and the public. Priority is to establish a highly efficient operational mechanism by improving transparency and social accountability, involving stakeholders to participate in and support Red Cross work; third, make efforts to improve governance and management of the Red Cross. Priority is to set up a democratic decision-making system, establish an efficient executive mechanism and all-round monitoring system, strengthen grassroots network development, improve brand management, strengthen membership and volunteer management, improve professionalism of its human resource, and develop strict system on program management and donation management.
The way leading to further institutional innovation is to reform comprehensively, which includes the following: First is to strengthen strategic study and top-level design With the support form experts, we have launched a strategic research of organization development of Red Cross and we hope to sort out and improve the legal, regulations, policy and system. We wish to clarify and protect the positioning, responsibilities, systems, brands, personnel and input from Red Cross Society of China. Second is to actively take part in the pilot comprehensive reform of national social organization and to be incorporated into the reform priorities of the 12th national five-year-plan(2011-2015) and the State Council's 2012 economic reform focus. Third is to start the study and practice on the key topics of the management system, governance structure, personnel protection and supervision mechanism. This will push forward the reform and innovation of institutional mechanisms of the RCSC, and the formation of the exploration and demonstration for the construction and management of Chinese social organizations.
The second priority is to be focused and strengthen the core business. The Red Cross mission is to protect human life and health, the core business in general can be summarized as "three saves" (emergency rescue, first aid and humanitarian aid), "three offers" ( blood donation, hematopoietic stem cells donation, human organs donation) and humanitarian assistance co-operation with international partners and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
There is further clarification and refinement of the core businesses of the Red Cross Society of China in the paper of the State Council on the basis of the stipulation of the Red Cross Law. The core businesses of Red Cross Society of China mostly fall into the public sector with an important mission and responsibilities as a humanitarian organization. We will try to focus our work on the statutory core businesses, and further to be refined, solid, and strong.
Third, strengthen professionalism and informationization to raise the overall quality of the work of the Red Cross. Individual ability and information are crucial to the development of a career. This period of reform and development will strategically focus on professionalism and informationization. Regarding professionalism, we have already begun reforming the cadre and personnel systems through open selection, competitive tests, and open employment of project staff, strengthening personnel training and motivation, establishing an expert think tank, and expanding international exchange. Regarding informationization, we will focus on the establishment of comprehensive information integration, decision support, integrated business applications, information services and release platforms in order to plan and promote construction of information management systems, raising the quality and efficiency of informational technology in the RCSC.
Now, my colleagues and I would like to answer your questions. Thank you.
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