You are here: Home > World > Diplomatic Exchanges

UNDP: private sector crucial for sustainable growth

By Chen Boyuan: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, May 19, 2012

Adjust font size:

During her recent visit to China, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) administrator Helen Clark attached great importance to China as she underscored the private sector's role in achieving sustainable growth.

Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator on Friday afternoon says the fast growing size and significance of the corporate sector in China has encouraged the UN agency to develop the strategy as to invite more involvement from the sector as powerful tools for development. [Pierre Chen / China.org.cn]

Clark, who visited China on May 16-19, acknowledged China's progress in poverty alleviation in which the world's most populous country increased per capita income fifty-fold during the past three decades. "This would not have happened without the contribution of thriving business," she said.

China's Ministry of Commerce statistics show that China's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa amounted to US$9.3 billion in 2009. UN figures went on to point out that China-Africa trade has soared by more than 30 percent per year during the last decade.

UNDP's partnership programmes in China have focused on improving energy efficiency, water management, biodiversity conservation and gender equality through corporate social responsibility (CSR), Clark said.

The ex-New Zealand prime minister-turned UN senior official said her agency is on course to assisting more Chinese enterprises to lift their CSR capabilities, and will also share CSR experience with other developing countries within the framework of South-South cooperation.

Last year, UNDP announced a four-year partnership with Chinese cosmetic company Jala Group to promote synergy between the traditional crafts of ethnic minorities and modern market trends.

The alliance has benefited women living in remote villages of Yunnan Province. In Ping Zhai Village, for instance, Dai minority women have been able to increase their incomes through embroidery. The age-old craft now gives them hope, pride and ways to achieve economic independence through an alternative farming, therefore allowing their village not to be "left out of sight, out of mind," Clark said.

Despite these successful cases, the private sector's role in developing rural communities in China is still limited. But in China, a country where state-run sector used to dominate the economy, the private sector also hasn't been paid due attention to in government decision making prior to the last two decades.

Even today, China's privately run businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are still suffering from inequality in their competition with giant state-owned enterprises.

Last year, China enacted a series of austerity measures to combat inflation. The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, repeatedly raised financial institutions' reserve requirement ratio as well as interest rates, intending to freeze the excessive liquidity on the market.

Small private companies in east China's coastal regions were the first to taste the bitter conditions resulting from the chills in the euro zone economy and the increased difficulty to secure loans. On the contrary, larger companies, usually state-owned firms who monopolized the market, were less affected, because banks would still issue loans to them based on their good credit and long term good standing backed by government revenues.

1 2 3 4 5 Next