On December 14, the Charity Philanthropy Research Institute (CPRI) at Beijing Normal University published an interview with OVCI la Nostra Famiglia (OVCI Our Family) about their registration process under the Foreign NGO Law. OVCI stressed the importance of “localization”—that is, working closely with a domestically-registered non-profit to understand local needs and utilize local resources. OVCI also discussed their efforts to meet early and often with their potential Professional Supervisory Unit (PSU), beginning in the summer of 2016, before the Law was formally implemented.
In terms of suggestions for the Law’s implementation going forward, OVCI said it hopes that the Law could incorporate a provision requiring PSUs to respond to NGO queries within a certain amount of time, noting that this time limit already exists for public security offices to respond to similar requests. OVCI also suggested that authorities provide a bilingual foreign NGO platform and guidance to make the process more accessible for foreign NGOs who do not have the requisite Chinese-language capability.
You can read the full bilingual interview on CPRI’s WeChat account. CPRI has previously published interviews with Ford Foundation and The Asia Foundation.