The Great Britain-China Centre promotes transparency and accountability by working with Chinese public, non-governmental, and business organisations to develop effective governance policy and systems. China's public and corporate governance is frequently characterised by a lack of transparency and accountability. This leads to inequality, inefficiency and corruption. In 2005 the OECD concluded that China “needs to make wide-ranging changes in the way it runs its public and private sectors if it is to continue on a stable growth path leading to full integration into the world economy.”
Public Finance Management
We are working with a leading public policy think tank, UNIRULE, based in Beijing, to look at ways to promote transparency and efficiency in local government budget management. This FCO-funded project was launched in August 2008 and will conclude in March 2010. Field research has been undertaken in four localities (Jiaozuo, Nanhai, Wenling and Wuxi) to analyse local initiatives to promote reform and outline existing problems. A pilot has been set up in Jiaozuo municipality to further improve the management of public finances by introducing multi-year budgeting, performance budgeting and gender budgeting. Both the field research and the results of the pilot experiment will be fed into an evidence-based policy recommendation document. [updated 11 August 2009]
Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in China
CSR remains a developing area in China. There has been a perception that Chinese companies and foreign owned companies operating in the China market pay little attention to the social and environmental effects of their operations. However, in just the last year there has been an explosion of enthusiasm and interest in CSR across business, government and academia. Companies in the China market are now increasingly looking to boost their CSR profile and reporting.
Reviewing CSR in the People's Republic of China
The Great Britain-China Centre conducted a review of UK-sponsored Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects and future CSR strategy in China in collaboration with Nottingham University. This project resulted in a report detailing the current state of CSR work in China and future areas of potential. The GBCC is developing proposals for further dialogues in this area, working with companies, local authorities and NGOs to reduce the economic, social and environmental impacts of doing business. This work is funded by the UK Global Opportunities Fund.
Improving Corporate Governance in China
Corporate governance is becoming an increasingly vital issue for China's companies and government. Despite improvements over recent years China's corporate governance standards are still ranked almost second to last in Asia. Corruption is rife. Issues with improving autonomy, the effectiveness of shareholder's meetings and the workings of boards of directors remain acute. Whilst regulatory mechanisms have improved, a lack of tradition of boardroom decision making has led to a level of uncertainty over the use of new found powers.
Tackling commercial bribery in the PRC
We assisted a think-tank under the Central Committee of the Communist Party conduct a study of UK regulations and regulatory framework surrounding commercial bribery in July 2007. This study culminated in a series of recommendations being made to the Chinese National Task Force for Curbing Commercial Bribery.
If you are interested in supporting or sponsoring projects in our various programme areas please go to our
Support Us page