This article focuses on a forum on social organisations’ participation in governance. Guangdong has long been at the forefront of social innovation in China. Pengjiang district in Jiangmen city, Guangdong, has simplified the registration procedures for social organisations and increased their role in social governance. The number of social organisations registered in Pengjiang has greatly increased from 113 in 2011 to 139 in 2012 and 280 in 2013, 5 for every 10,000 people.
However, these organisations’ social knowledge, resources and talent is comparatively low, creating a problem. For this reason, experts, scholars, managers and local workers were invited to a discussion forum entitled “How can social organisations participate in social governance?”
The forum recommended a policy to extend the length of contracts for social organisations whereby they would have to sign only once a year. However some criticised the recommendation as focusing too much on elderly care organisations at the expense of other issues. Another criticism was that the recommendation was not thorough or long-lasting enough.