CIA The World Factbook

YI: What about private companies, do they donate to NGOs?

Huang Haoming: I think this is a very important question for NGOs in China. Now the private companies are getting more active, joining, donating funds to NGOs, particularly this year. During the China earthquake, more enterprises joined in donating for victims. We at Chango received more than Yuan 10 million from private companies. This is a big progress for China.

YI: The civil society movement in China is a relatively new phenomenon in the past decade. Is this a reflection of the government's increasing confidence in people initiated programs?

Huang Haoming: Yes, China's open policy was really important for the Government and for civil society, particularly when China became a member of the WTO in 2001, it became more supportive of civil society organizations. For example, last year, the China National People's congress passed a new income tax law, which brought important changes for enterprises and for civil society organizations. The previous law set it (deductible for contributing to charity) at 3 percent, but now it is increased to 12 %. Changes have been initiated in enterprises because of this law. Recently China drafted a charity development law. I think it's very important as the Government becomes more confident it is supporting the civil society organizations and their activities.

YI: Your previously mentioned the mission of NGOs as health issues, legal aid, environment, but you didn't mention gender empowerment.

Huang Haoming: Oh, yes, that is really important. In 1995 China hosted the UN fourth women's conference. After that there were many agendas on gender empowerment, involving organizations and programs involved by civil society. There were many big changes, particularly in the rural areas, such as women's income generation, maintaining basic rights and interfaith. It is really important because Cango also supported these programs on women development in rural areas even at village level. There were big changes.

YI: What about health issues - is primary health the focus? What is the focus of health issues in China?

Huang Haoming: Health issues in China is really a hot topic because like HIV/AIDs issues according to the Ministry of Health, there are 700 cases. So we are helping the Ministry of Health, this is a challenging time for us. The government has opened up all resources to fight this scourge. For example, protection, education, basic knowledge for people, the rights of people and NGOs establish HIV/AID networks by working with people. This is important for China because economic development can be affected by health issues. Besides this, we also have other problems, like people's basic health.

YI: Like primary health for children?

Huang Haoming: Right. We also collaborate with international organizations like the CDM which provide special support for local farmers.

YI: You also mentioned legal aid, what kind of activities are NGOs involved in this area?

Huang Haoming: Legal aid is a very new concept, particularly 50 years ago when I joined the UNDP program. Today, there are special lawyers volunteering to support and provide legal aid, they network in urban areas. This is to help China's 150 million migrant workers coming into the cities. They are unable to get the opportunity to get basic rights because of a knowledge issue, because of funding, no access to channels. NGO can provide the publication, information and networking with the legal aid center at the government level and through lawyers institutes. Such NGOs getting more important for labor workers, access, network, information. So this is positive support, but more support (is needed) for the common people.

YI: So, we are talking about 50 million migrant workers working in cities around China. And how many legal aid NGOs are there helping them?

Huang Haoming: This is really a tough question for me. Cango has seven member organizations involved in legal aid, for example, China Foundation for Legal Aid and others which are members covering other kinds of legal problems. Cango itself is very much involved in legal aid projects, supported by the European Union. We also try to help female workers to get job opportunities, and provide them with the protection of their rights. I think the NGOs and Cango too are trying to establish centers for capacity building, which we call training departments. We are already training 10 classes for 140 workers and people in other organizations.