In the July edition of the China Economic Review includes a piece on NGOs in China, and some of the regulatory issues that exist.  A topic we have covered before on a number of posts, regualtions in China have been in development for a number of years now, and for the last 3 they have been rumored to be coming out.

Many NGOs, domestic and foreign, find this situation to be difficult at times as one of the primary hurdles the lack of regulations introduce is the inability to fund raise… which in translates often into the inability to fund staff… which in turn translates into an inabliity to scale… which in turn translates into difficulties bidding for larger program.

All in all, I would say that the article presents a fairly accurate picture of the landscape, however if I could make one correction I would correct where I was quoted as saying I was frustrated by the process when I am in fact not.  It is a process we all are aware of, and work with.  sure at times it makes things more interesting, but that is not something I get frustrated with.

You can read the entire article here.

There is a good summary of the impact of the labour law 6 months on here. Most commentators realise the labour law has not introduced too many new laws -it is just trying to enforce the current ones:

It is precisely those companies who have not previously paid the minimum wage or paid worker benefits who may well claim the new law will add costs of up to 40 percent - a figure often quoted by corporate observers. If a company has been compliant in most areas of the law then the new law will not cause more than a fraction of the estimated 40 percent.

The relocating of factories out of the PRD (Pearl River Delta) to other countries or inland in China has been under way for a while; it was not just caused by the Labour law. Why are the factories reloacting?

Among the main reasons contributing to the closure of enterprises are increasingly high and rising inflation, local and regional labour shortages (especially in skilled labour), the continued strength of the Chinese currency, rising taxes, tougher environmental standards, rising costs of raw materials and the end of certain government subsidies.

What impact might the law have then?

One major result of the new law – if implemented - will not necessarily be the automatic improvement of workers rights and living conditions but perhaps the shift in industrial relations to a situation where employers no longer routinely flout the laws – as is common now – but instead seek to legally circumvent the new law.

Overall we can see that the government has decided to start implementing the law; it is serious this time -and it is having big impacts on those that broke the previous law (i.e. 60% of employers did not give labour contracts before!). I wonder what impact would there be if there was a new environmental law similar to the labour law -so it would not issue anything new, but would tidy up the existing laws and enforce them. If the impact from that law on the incredible abuses and disregard of the current environmental law could be half as high as the impact seems to have been from the new labour law, there might still be hope for the environment in China -and the World!