The Parliamentary Centre in Asia

Canada-China Legislative Cooperation Project

About the Parliamentary Centre

The Parliamentary Centre is a Canadian not-for-profit, non-partisan organization devoted to improving the effectiveness of representative assemblies around the world.  Founded in 1968 to strengthen the capacity of Canada’s Parliament, the Centre is now a global leader in parliamentary development with projects that support parliaments in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Read more at: www.parlcent.ca

About the Program and its Accomplishments

The Canada-China Legislative Cooperation Project (CCLCP), a CIDA-funded five-year project with the National People’s Congress was successfully completed in September 2009.  During the life of the project thirty-three major initiatives were undertaken, providing deputies and staff from the national and a dozen provincial congresses with enhanced knowledge, comparative perspectives, tools and practical skills on topics like legislative reform and analysis, budget processes, public consultation mechanisms.
 

These were undertaken in relation to specific legislative proposals the NPC were considering such as their review of legislation on farmers cooperatives and rural development, agriculture extension and rural financing, the Corporations Act and the Financial Transfer Payment Act. 

The capstone initiatives in this last year of the Canada 2009 were the Parliamentarian Exchange Visit with the National and Selected People’s Congresses on Budget Oversight and Accountability and the publication of the Compendium on Public Consultations and the Compendium on the Budget Process and Fiscal Transfer Payments. These compendia consist of the presentations and resource materials used during the course of the project and were prepared in collaboration with our Chinese partners.  They have been widely distributed by the NPC.

On the whole, the CCLCP was a unique parliamentary project executed by the Centre.  As its project title notes, it was designed to be a cooperation project where the technical assistance and support provided to the national and provincial congresses took more of a learning exchange process between Canadian and Chinese participants.  The Project was a privileged witness to the workings of China’s political system and its efforts at modernizing its economy and governance processes.  This in itself contributed to increased awareness and better understanding of each country’s approach to governance reform and building of modern societies.

For more information about the project click here