Volunteer Organizations Need Government Funding

Southern China's Guangdong Province said earlier this week that it had created a 5 million yuan, or around 700 thousand U.S. dollar, fund to support local volunteer programs.

An article in The Beijing Youth Daily praises the move and called on other provinces in the country to follow suit.

It says in the past, the Chinese public was under the false impression that volunteer organizations should not receive government funding.

But the article notes that governments in many other foreign countries allocate funding to "buy" services from volunteer organizations.

It says the move not only will solve the financial problems that several volunteer organiations encounter, but also will ensure a high level of social services at lower costs.

The article suggests that China learn from other countries about setting up a system to "buy" public services in order to provide more social resources for the country's volunteer organizations.