As the Chinese New Year of 2016 is approaching, the leaders of the Ministry sent the New Year greetings in advance to the working staff of the Institute. In his speech, Minister Chen Lei also talked about the GWP China. He said that water is the strategic resource, underpinning the comprehensive power of a nation. Therefore, the strategic studies on the development of water resources play as a facilitator to the national water security and an advocate to the social-economic sustainability. The GWP China is expected to play a better role in this regard. For over 15 years, GWP China has set up a platform for inviting leaders/representatives from water-related sectors to discuss the water issues and find solutions so as to promote the research work and the communication between different sectors. It has also promoted the dissemination and application of the IWRM principle and water management knowledge/experiences sharing. The network of GWP China has developed over 100 partners, involving different industries and sectors at all levels. On the international stage, GWP China has closely cooperated with GWPO, GWP Regional Water Partnerships and other international organizations, sharing with others the water management experiences of China. GWP China at the same time has improved its governance, institutional system and capacity building.
In the future, GWP China is expected to revolutionize to the “think tanks” that perform research and advocacy concerning water- related development topics; practising the five principles (innovation, coordination, green, opening-up and sharing) proposed in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020); breaking the bottlenecks of water resources management and promoting a harmonious relationship between water and people.
Minister Chen Lei expressed his hope to GWP China in addition to the "think tanks" that the organization should develop its partnership network and form a best communication platform. It should be placed as a bridge connecting government and the public. The international cooperation is also crucial to GWP China, staying with the global water development trend, cooperating with international organizations and promoting the achieving of the SDG Water Goal. The last is to enhance the capacity building and governance of the organization.
The leaders of GWP China responded that GWP China will design its future development strategy towards the qualified “think tanks” that are capable of providing advice to governments and policy makers by combining elements of more established sources of public knowledge—universities, government agencies, businesses, and the media. The “think tanks” would exert a tremendous amount of influence on the way citizens and lawmakers perceive the world, unbound by the more clearly defined roles of those other institutions.