Voluntary sector seeks greater efficiency and more expertise

To maximize the value of voluntary work, the ordinance encourages government agencies, businesses and NGOs to recruit volunteers who can provide skills-based services.

By the end of November, more than 100 million Chinese had registered as volunteers and 120,000 NGOs were providing voluntary services, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which oversees the endeavors.

The high number of volunteers is a stark contrast to the situation 40 years ago when China adopted the reform and opening-up policy. At the time, the concept of voluntary work was almost unknown.

The adoption of the policy kick-started decades of rapid economic growth that laid the foundation for China to become the world's second-largest economy and opened people's minds to fresh ideas.

Some experts have said that the growth of the voluntary sector is a result of the changes that started in 1978 and helped drive economic expansion.

Tan Jianguang, vice-president of the China Young Volunteers Association, which was founded in 1994, said the country's voluntary sector has grown at an unprecedented rate: "It has reached a level that took the West more than 200 years to achieve."

In 1983, a voluntary program was launched in Beijing's Xicheng district that encouraged people to lend a helping hand to the neighborhood's disadvantaged communities, such as the disabled, the elderly and the poverty stricken.

In the following decade, voluntary teams and organizations began to emerge nationwide.

Tan noted that 2008 was a landmark in this development, because the year saw the Beijing Olympics and an earthquake in Sichuan province that left almost 70,000 people dead and nearly 20,000 missing. Events such as these helped to galvanize people in all walks of life, along with businesses and NGOs, and drove the growth of the voluntary sector.