New project on Promoting NGO Development initiated

The opening ceremony of CANGO's new capacity building project Promoting NGO Development , supported by the German Church Development Service (EED), was held on Dec. 29th, 2010 inBeijing. 40 participants from NGOs, government, academic institutions, media and resource organizations attended this meeting.

Opening statements were delivered by Mr. Jia Xiaojiu, deputy director general of the State NGO Management Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the representative of academic institution, Dr. Deng Guosheng, associate professor of TsinghuaUniversity and the executive director of CANGO, Mr. Huang Haoming.

In the formal opening session, Mr. Jia Xiaojiu congratulated CANGO on starting the project in his opening speech. Then he read out a congratulatory letter from Mr. Sun Weilin, director general of the NGO Management Bureau, who bestowed high praise on CANGO s contribution to both NGO capacity building and sustainable development of the Chinese NGO sector over the last years. In this letter, it was said that the breakthrough point of this project is significant for NGO development, which is helpful to the State NGO Management Bureau. Therefore the Bureau will give its full support to CANGO for implementation of this project. Mr. Sun also expressed his heartfelt expectations for smooth implementation and anticipates successful results.

Furthermore, the representative of the academic institution, Dr. Deng Guosheng, associate professor of TsinghuaUniversity wasinvited as a oration guest in the opening ceremony. He also spoke highly of the previous NGO capacity building projects implemented over the last 8 years by CANGO. In his research, it was the largest and longest NGO capacity building project carried out throughout the country. He proposed that the PND project will set up a platform for communication among stakeholders in order to provide opportunities for NGOs. The projects goal to contribute to improvement of policy and social environment will have profound influence on civil society and socio-economic development.

Mr. Huang Haoming, executive director of CANGO, demonstrated how CANGO intends to cooperate with other stakeholders to make a due contribution to civil society development in the implementation of this project. He introduced the specific project focus and expected impacts which include improving NGO s social and policy environment, enhancing NGO's professional capability and raising the level of NGO development as well as supporting the efforts to socio-economic development. Mr. Huang also introduced specific PND project information, including project purpose, main activities plan and other details. A Q&A session was conducted after this introduction.

Then, to conclude the opening ceremony, Mr. Jia Xiaojiu, Mr. Deng Guosheng and Mr. Huang Haoming unveiled the commemorative plaque of the project.