The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, is committed to building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind. The Belt and Road Initiative is made to enhance political communication and facilitate connectivity, to keep open channels for trade and investment and to assist people-to-people exchanges. The people-to-people exchanges act as an important foundation for the rest of the goals, which requires the joint efforts of all related governments, enterprises, citizens, academies, media and nongovernmental organizations.

China has already experienced the problems that most other developing countries are encountering now. And with 30 years' accumulated project experience in health, education, poverty alleviation and environmental protection, China's NGOs are capable of meeting the needs of the countries along the Belt and Road routes.

There are a great number of projects that have been carried out for many years in China and which have developed into matured models and achieved great results. For example, the Brightness Action Activity (free cataract operations) and Happy Spring (safe drinking water) by China Foundation for Peace and Development, the methane project by Global Environmental Institute, and the supported teaching project by Linshan Charity Foundation.

China's NGOs, which possess the characteristics of being professional, neutral, innovative and have the advantage of local community involvement, are playing an irreplaceable role in enhancing people-to-people exchanges along the Belt and Road routes.

Many of China's NGOs have set up project offices in recipient countries, and have worked in the poorest local communities for years. They recruit local workers and volunteers and provide face-to-face services. The hepatitis B Screening project carried out by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation in the Pokhara region in Nepal has successfully tested the blood of 50,000 local people and found 132 people that were infected.

It is actually easier for NGOs to build connections with their local peers, and make broader and deeper connections with the local community. For example, the Chinese Red Cross Foundation, with the help of the network of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, has actively carried out projects such as disaster rescue, congenital heart disease treatment, refugee assistance, and first aid facilities assistance in Belt and Road countries.

Also, Chinese NGOs have complementary advantages in foreign aid projects to governments. They have contributed to the diversity of aid, introduced competition to enhance work efficiency. The Chinese government has provided great amounts of foreign aid through large infrastructure projects, such as roads, hospitals and schools. However, the small paths connecting counties, doctors sent to the hospitals, follow-up school education, which are of the same importance to realize aid effects need to be provided by NGOs.

Moreover, NGOs have great mobilization capacity by nature, and therefore can bring more resources to foreign aid, expand the scale and enhance the result. Take the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation as an example, by the end of 2018, the foundation had carried out international rescue and development projects in more than 20 countries and regions, with total investment exceeding 160 million yuan ($23.9 million), benefiting thousands of local people. Since the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in May, 2017, the CFPA has invested more than 60 million yuan in total in Belt and Road countries, benefiting thousands of local people. On Feb 26, 2019, the "Love Package Project" was initiated by CFPA and the Alibaba Foundation, which will invest more than 100 million yuan to send more than one million love packages to countries along the Belt and Road routes and facilitate the people-to-people communication over the next three years.

Frankly, it is an evolutionary process for China's NGOs to have an international presence. At the early stage, charity projects, with mature models, easy management and which are able to solve immediate problems, lead the way. With more experiences, development projects which have achieved great results in China will be carried out in other countries gradually in the future. The following efforts are needed for China's NGOs to be promising in assisting the people-to-people communication along the Belt and Road routes.

First, China's NGOs need to coordinate with each other to form scale effects. In May 2018, the China NGO Network for International Exchanges coordinated 20 NGOs to visit Cambodia and conduct exchanges with the local civil sector. Ten Chinese NGOs signed agreements or memorandums of understanding with 11 local NGOs during this visit, covering people's livelihoods, healthcare, education, environmental protection, child protection and volunteer exchanges, with measurable investment of more than 6.5 million yuan. The same year in July, at the project meeting between the China NGO Network for International Exchanges and Nepali Social Welfare Council, 25 Chinese NGOs and 34 local NGOs outlined their projects covering education, poverty alleviation, healthcare, and disaster prevention and relief. By the end of this meeting, 11 Chinese NGOs had shown cooperative intention and signed 13 agreements and memorandums. These cooperation agreements contributing to the improvement of Cambodian and Nepali people's livelihoods, enhanced friendship with China, and were widely welcomed and highly appraised by the two countries' governments and civil sectors.

Second, China's government needs to complete related laws and regulations. It has been a short period of time since China's NGOs started working abroad, and the related laws and regulations are not perfect yet. For example, the establishment of overseas offices, the channels for the appropriation of funds, the custom clearance for overseas donations, and the classification of the foreign aid money have no relevant legal provisions to follow. We advise the government to complete this legal framework as soon as possible to guarantee the smooth operation of NGO's overseas projects. Also, we advise the government to launch a fund for South-South development cooperation as soon as possible to increase support for China's NGOs to go abroad.

Wang Xingzui is executive vice-chairman of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. Wu Peng is director of the International Department of the foundation. 

The authors contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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