A cooperation project between the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Chinese Ministry of Supervision (MOS) was initiated in Beijing Friday to help China promote good governance.

The MOS, whose tasks include supervising the implementation of state policies, laws and regulations and dealing with complaints and charges against government officials, is China's national administrative supervision organ under the leadership of the State Council.

The project, officially named "Integrity in Governance in China", was the first of its kind ever carried out jointly by the UNDP and the MOS.

A MOS official said a total of US$2.62 million will be used for the project in the next three years. Of the money, US$1 million will be donated by the UNDP, US$620,000 by the MOS, and the remaining from other sources.

The fund, said the official, will be used for activities such as personnel training and pilot institutions.

He Yong, minister of the MOS, attended the signing ceremony on Friday. He said China had always attached great importance to the promotion of honest and diligent administration and made it the basis for maintaining social stability and economic growth.

"While engaged in economic construction in the past two decades, China has, at the same time, been devoted to building an honest, diligent, pragmatic and effective government," he said.

According to the latest statistics from the MOS, from October 1992 to September 2002, more than 1.63 million cases of maladministration and corruption were recorded by China's supervision administrations with about 1.55 million cases closed and 1.56 million people punished.

"The MOS values the exchanges and cooperation with counterparts in other countries, regions and international organizations and is ready to learn from all countries the good experiences and useful practices as the basis of China's own situations," he said.

Kerstin Leitner, resident representative of UNDP, said at the signing ceremony that corruption was a global problem, and world experience showed anti-corruption was an arduous task.

Many countries had achieved good results in halting corruption, she said, adding that the UNDP was glad to help China share with other countries the experiences and effective measures in building the integrity in governance.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2002)