On June 27, 2013, a briefing on China’s “Foreign Labor Cooperation Management Ordinance” was held in Sabo Kaikan (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo). Over 300 people participated, including 191 people from 165 Japanese supervising organizations and 82 people from 60 Chinese sending organizations, as well as attendees from other related organizations.

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  Scene from the Ordinance briefing

JITCO President Tochigi started the event with an opening address, followed by an address from Vice-Chairwoman Wang He of the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA), and then an address from Luo Xiao Mei, the Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Tokyo. After that, First Secretary Zhu Bin, the head of Outward Investment and Economic Cooperation at China’s Ministry of Commerce, gave an explanation about the Foreign Labor Cooperation Management Ordinance, followed by a Q&A session. In the business card exchange held after the explanation, a lively exchange of views took place among the Japanese supervising organizations and the sending organizations under the Sino-Japan Trainee Cooperation Organization, who attended from 16 provinces and cities in China. CHINCA Vice-Chairwoman Wang He gave the following address.
“The Foreign Labor Cooperation Management Ordinance is China’s first specialized law in the field of foreign labor cooperation, and it will play an important role in the scientific development of foreign labor cooperation. We believe this is an important moment in terms of looking toward the future. We must accurately recognize the difficulties that we need to overcome together and face the challenges required for development head on. Under the new Technical Intern Training Program and the policy environment of foreign labor cooperation reform, we believe all the industries in both China and Japan should continue to join hands and work together in order to propel the sustained growth of the technical intern trainee cooperation program.”

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  Vice-Chairperson Wang He of the China International Contractors Association

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  Luo Xiao Mei Economic and Commercial Counselor, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Tokyo

Furthermore, Economic and Commercial Counselor Luo Xiao Mei of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Tokyo gave the following address. “The Sino-Japanese training and technical intern program boasts more than 20 years of history, and so far hundreds of thousands of Chinese technical intern trainees have come to Japan, learned Japanese techniques, intermingled, and contributed to the growth of industry. After their return to China, they have served as strategic power for China’s industrial growth. The Foreign Labor Cooperation Management Ordinance strictly stipulates relevant matters. Implementing this Ordinance will make China’s foreign labor cooperation management more systematic and sensible, and we believe it will contribute to the sound, stable growth of the Sino-Japanese technical intern cooperation program. Since the latter half of 2012, Sino-Japanese relations have faced the most difficult phase in the 40 years since the countries’ normalization of diplomatic relations. At present, parties from both Japan and China are working tirelessly to improve the two countries’ relations, and it is anticipated that this Ordinance briefing will promote a deeper understanding of the Ordinance, strengthen trust in mutual cooperation, and promote the further growth of the two countries’ technical intern cooperation program.”

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  First Secretary Zhu Bin, China’s Ministry of Commerce

First Secretary Zhu Bin, Outward Investment and Economic Cooperation at China’s Ministry of Commerce, explained the background and gave an overview of the Ordinance’s promulgation. She mentioned the feelings of trust toward Japan, which is well organized from a legal standpoint, and the advantage of Chinese technical intern trainees who are skilled with their hands. In addition, she revealed some upcoming issues, such as rising wages within China, changes in workers’ mentality due to different generations, and the protection of technical intern trainees’ rights.

The Foreign Labor Cooperation Management Ordinance took effect on August 1, 2012, and the deadline was set at June 30, 2013 for sending organizations to comply with the Ordinance. The Ordinance contains a stipulation to increase the amount of capital and the hazard measure reserve fund. Consequently, since it was believed that some sending organizations may decide to withdraw from the technical intern trainee dispatch program, JITCO requested an explanation of the relevant matters at the beginning of the question and answer session.
First Secretary Zhu explained that with regard to the Ordinance, local governments are currently preparing the screening procedures associated with the operating credentials and the “detailed implementation rules” that stipulate the details of the reserve fund, etc., and these have not yet been promulgated. Therefore, she explained, there is presently some variance among different areas in terms of their progress in re-issuing sending organizations’ operating credential certificates. As a result, for the foreseeable future it is not possible to verify whether or not a sending organization has operating credentials based only on the reissue status of its operating credential certificates. Therefore, she said, this can also be verified by checking whether or not a particular company appears in the list of foreign labor cooperating companies posted on the website for China’s Ministry of Commerce and the websites for local government authorities in charge of commerce.

[Website for China’s Ministry of Commerce]
http://wszw.hzs.mofcom.gov.cn/fecp/zsmb/corp/corp_ml_index.jsp
(Select “By foreign labor company name” on the left side -> Select region -> Search by inputting part of the sending organization’s name in Chinese))

Also, in the event that a sending organization withdraws from the technical intern dispatch program and stops making new dispatches, they are required by the Ordinance to take appropriate measures with regard to the technical intern trainees who are already dispatched. It was explained that two possible methods for supervising dispatched technical intern trainees are (1) for the current sending organization to continue doing so, or (2) for a new sending organization to take over.
Inquiries regarding the general interpretation of the Ordinance or related issues may be directed to the Sino-Japan Trainee Cooperation Organization in China or its representative office in Japan (Taito-ku, Tokyo, Tel: 03-5827-2268). For serious problems, contact the commercial office of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Tokyo.