Strengthening Business Membership Organisations for Fighting Corruption

Mission

Strengthen Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) in fighting corruption in China

Goals

Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) have become important players in the process of promoting transparency and fair markets. The initiative supported the Chinese project partners to develop anti-corruption approaches and improve organisational strengths and management capacities, e.g. qualification of staff and the development of training material.

The main objectives of the initaitve were:

• Establishment and support of public-private dialogue platforms,
• Development and implementation of industry-specific standards,
• Knowledge management and exchange of best practices, and
• Capacity building within Chinese BMOs.

Stakeholders

The initiative was led by sequa gGmbH in cooperation with German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

The project made available the expertise of German BMOs (German chambers of commerce and sectoral associations and their umbrella associations such as DIHK, BDI, etc.) and their members, in combination with the expert network of GIZ GmbH and sequa gGmbH.

Project partners in China include the Chengdu General Chamber of Commerce and the Hunan Provincial Chamber.

Activities

Some of the project’s key achievements :

• Over 3,000 representatives from public and private sector participated in activities under the project in the Chengdu and Hunan provinces during the entire project duration.
• Industry-specific standards on anti-corruption and compliance were developed for selected sectors and are being applied by companies.
• ‘Integrity Proclamations’ were signed in Chengdu as well as in Hunan and are going to be further promoted by sector chambers even after the end of the project. More than 100 companies of the Hunan Machinery Industry Chambers signed a Code of Conduct and around 200 companies in Chengdu signed two Integrity Pacts in public bidding activities.
• Six public-private dialogue platforms took place between the local partner chambers and government authorities providing the opportunity for local enterprises to communicate directly with the municipal government and addressing topics such as corruption prevention and integrity in business.
• The Chengdu General Chamber of Commerce achieved the establishment of a standing Public-Private Committee for curbing corruption on the city level. This structured exchange of opinions, serving as the basis for coordinating Collective Action, created a huge echo in the media with over 140 reports in nation-wide media.
• An online training tool inspired and based on Transparency International’s ‘Resist’ tool was developed and distributed among Business Membership Organizations and companies.