Draft Law on Sector Associations
China’s Draft Law on Sector Associations and Chambers has been discussed during the March plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and the People’s Political Consultative Conference, but the legislative bodies failed to reach an early consensus. On April 5, 2007, the nation-wide newspaper “China Business Times” published the second part of an interview with the German expert Helmut Schoenleber who stressed the importance of non-government business membership organizations (BMO) for the healthy development of private enterprises. According to the expert, the country needs a fair BMO law protecting the interests of members and aiming for a wider self-administration of the private business community. For drafting the BMO law, legislators should not only consider the economic situation, national characteristics, demands of enterprises, and related laws and regulations of other countries, but they also need a fair portion of creativity.