By Xinhua
Beijing : China's state council or cabinet has called for tighter supervision and faster development of the country's rising professional, industrial and non-governmental organizations after a long-standing oral health organization was disbanded for selling endorsements to private companies.
"Representative organizations should be separate from the government and governed by law," according to a state council circular, which wants a clear definition of the functions and relations between governments and the organizations.
It asked government departments at all levels to solicit opinions and suggestions from the organizations when laws, regulations and policies are being developed.
"The organizations should actively take part in policy research and the drafting of laws, standards and development plans of the sector they represent," the circular said.
It calls for a system to evaluate the organizations to eliminate those that are not doing an effective job and to provide training to bring their competency up to international standard.
The National Committee for Oral Health (NCOH) was suspended in April as it was found to be selling its name to manufacturers in exchange for endorsing their products.
China had 346,000 professional, industrial and non-governmental organizations at the end of last year.