Teaching Case, (Bridging Government And Enterprises With Policy Service)

Chamber of Commerce and Guilds are outcomes of market economy. All the countries and regions with developed market economy have mature Chamber of Commerce and Guilds, and these organizations are playing very important roles in the market economy system with their un-replaceable statuses. During the planed economy era of our country, Chamber of Commerce and Guilds were basically sub-institutions of government departments of all levels, or even places for arranging retired government officials. Chamber of Commerce and Guilds at that time were lack of self-construction capability, and thus didn't function well as it should have. Started from 1978, opening up policy was fully carried out in our nation, bringing huge changes to our country's economy, politics, social life, and concept of culture. Market economy system was accepted by China's government, and the reforming goal of "Small Government, Big Society"was set at the time. The changing of the orbit of economy system and the transform of the government function offered a huge space for the development of social organizations. A lot of domestic Chamber of Commerce and Guilds were born during this period of reform and opening up. This Chamber of Commerce and Guilds all gained rapid development no matter if they were established by government or by private companies. Shenzhen Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (SZAEFI), as a government owned guild at first, was established by Shenzhen Economic Development Bureau in 1989. Soon after, SZAEFI disconnected with the government, and began to operate in a non-government way. With 15 years of development, SZAEFI has become a large association with strong representative of foreign investors and far reaching influences in Shenzhen city. SZAEFI did its unique share of duty in quite some important policies making related to the economic development of Shenzhen. Teaching case of "Bridging Government and Enterprises with Policy Service"tries to discuss the functions, operation mechanism, and the future momentum of SZAEFI in the changing of China's economy by introducing its'history, services, and participations of some important policies making. Entering the 21st century, the further development of Chamber of Commerce and Guilds are facing new requirements raised by the improvement of market economy, opportunities and challenges of China's accession into WTO, the reform of the policy system and all the other requirements of the new era. Combining the practice and development of SZEAFI, our teaching case gives four policy suggestions to the incubation and standardization of the Chambers of Commerce and guilds. They are: 1.Enhancing non-governmentalization of chambers of commerce and guilds; 2.Adopting some supporting measures; 3.Speeding up the process of legislation; 4. Developing organization of rights and interests to build a balancing mechanism...