Ministry of Civil Affairs (MoCA) and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government signed on July 4 a cooperation agreement on joint construction of a national model zone of modern civil affairs. Yu Zhengsheng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of CPC Shanghai Committee, and Li Liguo, Minister of MoCA, addressed the ceremony. Li Liguo and Han Zheng, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Committee and Mayor of Shanghai, singed the cooperation agreement.

MoCA leading members including Luo Pingfei, Jiang Li, Dou Yupei, and Chen Chuanshu and the leading members of Shanghai Municipality Ding Xuexiang and Xu Lin were present. Vice Mayor Hu Yanzhao hosted the ceremony.

On behalf of the Shanghai Municipality, Yu Zhengsheng expressed appreciation for the consistent strong support from MoCA. Yu said that the signing of the cooperation agreement marked a new stage of the collaboration between MoCA and Shanghai and would provide new opportunities and room for the growth of the city’s civil affairs programs. Shanghai, as one of the first cities implementing reform and opening up, should and will be able to take the lead in the reform and innovation of civil affairs undertakings. Shanghai shall make the best use of the opportunity of carrying out the cooperation agreement to keep following the state strategies and making contributions to China’s overall economic and social development, to further strengthen the efforts in social innovation to address the difficulties and bottleneck problems occurring in the process of the reform and opening up in social development with an aim to making breakthroughs in certain key areas and links, exploring and demonstrating the regular pattern regarding the reform and development of the civil affairs undertakings for the nation.

Li Liguo said the cooperation agreement was a significant step for Shanghai to promote its social and economic advancement and the further reform and opening up of Pudong New Area. Shanghai Municipality has been attaching great importance to civil affairs programs and providing powerful leadership and support for the reform and progress. Shanghai civil affairs departments have shared a lot of valuable experience, which has helped accelerate the advancement of civil affairs programs across the nation. Shanghai is one of the cities with the most solid foundation of and the best environment for development and with the strongest competitive power in the country; therefore the civil affairs-related challenges for Shanghai are and will be the same as that the whole country is faced with and Shanghai’s experience to tackle those problems will be important in terms of China’s overall development in civil affairs. Li hoped that the signing and the implementation of this agreement would give Shanghai’s civil affairs development a more powerful impetus in pushing forward the overall civil affairs programs in China.

According to the cooperation agreement, MoCA and Shanghai will work together to establish a complete and scientific mechanism for social relief; promote the development of benefit-all social welfare and charity undertakings; reform community management and service mechanism; innovate the development modes for social organizations; push forward the establishment of the social work mechanism, and raise the level of social affairs management and social service; intensify the application of modern science & technology and criteria; and improve the guarantee mechanism for modern civil affairs development. MoCA will provide more guidance for Shanghai’s civil affairs programs in policy research, regulation formulation, planning, mechanism innovation and experience promotion etc. as a move to support Shanghai in the building of a model zone of modern civil affairs.