Social Enterpreneurship – Emerging culture in China
“How to change the WORLD” – This is a book which inspired Zhou Xian to take up Social entrepreneurship and it will be the book which i will pick up from the online shelf once back to India.
Meanwhile, Social Enterprise is slowly rising from the infancy stage in China.
While the social entrepreneurship has been around for several decades in some countries, in China it has only just begun to emerge in the last decade (especially after 2008 Sichuan earthquake) with social entrepreneurs beginning to tackle diverse social topics. Though this information is not new, i have tried to collect information from various sources and combine it into a single blog to read.
The 2012 China Social Enterprise report compiled by FYSE has listed growing socio-economic disparities as the major driving force for social entrepreneurship in China. Although China has experienced remarkable economic growth, resulting disparities have created a potential seedbed for social unrest and, in turn, a perfect breeding ground for the development of social enterprises.
A very interesting article on the Social Enterprise development in Mainland China can be found here:
http://www.hksef.org/files/files/Social_Entrepreneurs_Newsletter_No__139.pdf
Go through the above article for an interesting read..
In the last few weeks we have been on the road in Shanghai, the positive encouragement we have recieved on the NGO we are supporting (Buy42) shows that this trend is not only here to stay but also to rise further. Also, the work done by the NGOs over the last decade have not gone unnoticed by the China government.
In fact, the 12th Five Year Plan for Civil Society Sector covering 2011-2015 has expressed the intent to promote a more favourable environment for social organizations.
Some of the key aspects the government has intended to cover in the 2011-2015 plans are:
– Write better legislation for the charitable sector
– Create a tax environment in which donations to charities are truly encouraged
– Develop a more effective volunteer policy
– Promote a more developed charitable sector
– Make the sector more open, transparent, and better governed
– Create self-regulatory rules for the sector
Though the above might be smaller steps, it is still a significant move forward for Chinas social sector.
More details on the on the MCA China 5 year plan can be found in the blog posted in BSR:
Regards,
Prashanth