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The experience of OECD countries shows that good governance and territorial development policies are fundamental to ensure sustainable development and social cohesion. This is equally true for today's China.
The purpose of the China Governance Programme is to create a policy dialogue between the Chinese government and OECD member governments on public governance and territorial development issues.
OECD's China Programme on Public Governance and Territorial Development
Behind China's ability to solve its environmental crisis, to ensure the respect of intellectual property rights or to improve the delivery of basic public services lie governance and territorial development challenges. The transition from a planned economy to an increasingly market-based economy has not only meant restructuring state-owned enterprises and opening up to the development of private sector; it has also required the extensive reform of the public governance system and the redefinition of the role of the state.
Chinese policy-makers are well aware of the importance of public governance and territorial development policies. Impressive progress has been made but reforming government structures and practices should continue to be a priority in the agenda of Chinese policy-makers.
Through the China Governance Programme, OECD member governments share with Chinese policy-makers their expertise on public governance and territorial development policies. The analyses and policy dialogues conducted in this framework also allow member countries to better understand the complex challenges China has to address in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its public action.
The China Governance Project
Within the OECD's China Programme on Public Governance and Territorial Development, the OECD launched in 2003 the China Governance Project to share the expertise of its member countries' on governance issues. It was also the opportunity to better understand the challenges faced by China and it has led to the organisation of several policy dialogues on these issues. This project was undertaken in the framework of the programme of cooperation between the OECD and China, initiated in 1996. It thus benefited from the relations of mutual trust established between the OECD Secretariat and many Chinese administrations.
The China Governance Project took both a whole-of-government and a sector approach. In the whole-of-government approach, the project took stock of the progress made and examined remaining problems in the budget process, public expenditure, the tax system, the civil service, the fight against corruption, regulatory management and organisational structures.
The sector approach looked at the problem from the other end: how, in different sectors, governance issues affect policy-making, its efficiency and effectiveness. Again, the idea was to review progress made and to identify and analyse remaining weaknesses. The project covered ten policy sectors: labour policies, the banking sector, competition, intellectual property rights, foreign investment, statistics, corporate governance and the management of state assets, agriculture, environment protection and higher education.
This project took the dialogue beyond the general statement that "governance matters", showing how, in practice, in the different policy sectors covered, governance indeed affects public action.
How the organisational weaknesses (e.g. institutions inherited from the planned regime coexisting with "new" institutions that have been added one after the other), fiscal issues (e.g. the mismatch between responsibilities and resources), managerial issues (e.g. the low quality bureaucracy in poorer areas), central-local relations issues (e.g. decentralisation not accompanied by appropriate reorganisation of state structures), inadequate accountability structures and inadequate participation mechanisms in policy-making contributed to weaken public action.
A final report, Governance in China, was published in September 2005. This report was presented in Beijing in a meeting jointly organised with the Development Research Center of the State Council on December 12, 2005.
Areas of Collaboration and Main Chinese partners
To date, collaboration and policy dialogue took place in the following areas:
Budgeting
Integrity and corruption prevention
E-government
Regulatory reform
Public service delivery
Regional development
The main partner organisations in China are the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Development Research Centre of the State Council, the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, the Budget Commission of the National People's Congress, the Ministry of Supervision, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Commerce.
Useful links and contact
=>The "Governance in China" report.
=>For more information on OECD's work in China, see The OECD's China Programme
=>For more information on OECD's work on Public Governance and Management
=>For more information on OECD's work on Territorial Policies
=>Contact: Irene.hors@oecd.org , Co-ordinator of the China Governance Programme.
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