SPONSOR:

China Entrepreneur Network
              University of Michigan

Seminar on China's Rural Reconstruction: Advice for Field Participants

In October 2005, the Chinese government initiated the "New Rural Development (NRD)" as a national strategy characterized by enhanced productivity, higher living standards, healthy rural culture, neat and clean villages and democratic administration. China's leaders proclaimed that upgrading agriculture, rural areas, and peasants’ lives (Three Rural Problems 三农问题) is an imperative of the Party.

Upgrading China's rural area is a complex and daunting challenge. Many attempts have been frustrated by cross-purposes (the more developmental NRD versus the more commercial NSC, for example). At the ground level, good people and organizations, including NGOs, have gone to the countryside and earnestly tried to make an impact. Their successes are fewer than their disappointments.

As a consultant on bringing "Step Change" to large organizations, I was repeatedly able to make an impact based, in part, on my experience training horses. I wish to impart "Good Horse Sense" to those wanting to be effective in villages. Professor Wen TieJun (Renmin University) and You Xiaojian (University of Michigan) have been my inspiration and Sun Jun's book, The Rural Way, my guide.

jim.cook@cha4mot.com