Members of the Luohu People’s Political Consultative Conference (LPPCC), the district’s top political advisory body, founded a public welfare fund five years ago, the first of its kind established by political advisers in China.
Since its founding, more than 200 members of the LPPCC have donated over 9.28 million yuan ($1.44 million), which has been spent on 22 projects. What’s more, in the process of facilitating the projects, the donors have drafted 19 proposals covering a range of issues including campus security, youth drug prevention, employment opportunities for disabled individuals and child-friendly urban development.
On the afternoon of July 29, a ceremony was held at the Baoneng Center in Luohu to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the fund.
During the ceremony, Wu Yuzhong, chairman of the CPPCC Luohu Committee, said, “Looking into the next five years, the fund will continue to uphold its people-centered principle, and make itself a platform to serve the people and contribute to the development of Luohu.”
Wang Wenhui, a member of the fund’s executive board, said that folding the fund into the greater LPPCC board affords it a clear objective. That is, it should be seen as a public welfare incubator that hatches new ideas promoting public welfare development in Luohu while exploring the LPPCC’s integral role in promoting good governance in the district.
The political advisers’ expertise has proven invaluable to operating the fund, as ensuring that the money is well spent requires a deep understanding of the issues, and the cooperation of multiple parties, Wang added.
Operating the fund has encouraged LPPCC members to come up with 19 proposals related to residents’ everyday concerns, and most of the proposals have already resulted in policies that address local issues.
Ultimately, the fund has pushed the political advisors to the forefront of daily life, where they can be directly engaged with the socio-economic development of the district while listening and actively responding to their constituents’ concerns.
Hu Xiaojun, a member of the fund’s expert penal, said the project connects LPPCC members with government departments, social organizations, communities and other parties, and provides them with “a small incision” to gain insights into local problems so that their proposals can better reflect the people’s will, and serve as necessary reference points for policymakers.
Hu urged the executive board of the fund to pay more attention to aligning their work with Luohu's ambitions of becoming a comprehensive hub in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.