Project management popular in China

Project Management Professional (PMP) examination systems have become increasingly popular since they were introduced in China in 2000, with nearly 100,000 people attending lessons, said Wan Xueyuan, director of China's State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA), at the 2004 International Conference of Project Management Technology Application, which opened Friday.

Elaborating on the importance of international exchange and cooperation versus the fierce international competition and challenges brought by globalization, Wan said the advanced science and technology as well as management method from abroad, is conducive to boosting the opening-up and modernization in China, which has been proved by the past practice. The SAFEA, as the chief governmental administration in charge of introducing in overseas intellectuals, also attached much importance to relevant method, including PMP system.

In 2000, SAFEA's training center joined hands with the Project Management Institute (PMI) of the United States, to launch PMP and relevant training and examinations in China, which, till today, has drawn nearly 100,000 person-times to the courses.

According to Wan, more than 10,000 people have attended PMP exams, and more than 5,000 of them passed the exam.

"PMP not only trained a group of high-level management staff for China," Wan said, "but also bring social and economic benefits to the fields of information industry, architecture, finance, aerospace and petrochemical."

Taking the state-owned enterprise China United Engineering Corporation as an example, Wan said the company, by spreading PMP study among high-level staff, the production value jumped to one billion yuan (about 121 million US dollars) from the original 300 million yuan (about 36 million US dollars). Construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir, and the projects to divert natural gas and electricity from western to eastern regions, also borrowed ideas of PMP.

With the speeding up of the opening-up and the further participation into the globalization, China will need more successful and practical management methods, said Wan.