The final events of the China Development Marketplace – the Project Exhibition, Knowledge Forum and Award Ceremony, will be held in the Beijing International Convention Center on February 23-24, 2006.

The World Bank will sponsor representatives of the 100 finalist projects to come to Beijing for the project exhibition and competition for the awards. Now the finalists are making preparations for these events. The project exhibition will be formally opened on the afternoon of February 23 and last till the noon of the next day. It is open to the public, offering a great opportunity for visitors to have direct contacts and interaction with local and grassroots NGOs and learn about their activities.

In the meantime, a jury for the CDM is being set up, composing of senior representatives of the CDM government partners, multilateral and bilateral agencies, private sector, NGOs and academia.  On February 24, the jury will visit the project exhibition, interview the finalists, and meet to decide on the winners. On the afternoon of the same day, the winners will be announced at a grand award ceremony held at BICC, attended by senior officials of government ministries, representatives of multilateral and bilateral agencies, international and corporate donors, chambers of commerce, foundations, NGOs and the press. The World Bank will be represented by Vice President Frannie Léautier.

New donors have been attracted to the CDM, including Xin'ao Group, a Hebei-based Chinese private company specialized in clean energy, and the French Areva Group, one of the largest power companies in the world. The Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation has also joined as a contributor.

China Development Marketplace was co-sponsored by the World Bank, State Council Leading Group Office for Poverty Alleviation and Development and Ministry of Civil Affairs, with full support by the Ministry of Finance. It is an important initiative of the World Bank to identify and support innovative projects from Chinese NGOs and promote development of a civil society in China. Officially launched last June, it received 975 project proposals from NGOs all over China.  Through two rounds of assessments, 100 best project proposals were selected. These proposals feature activities such as rural development, education and training, disease control and health service, environmental protection, information service, legal aid, poverty reduction among ethnic minority groups, and assistance to migrant workers, with the common objective to provide direct services to reach the poor. 

(China Development Gateway January 23, 2006)