NEW YORK — China is strengthening corporate compliance by training relevant personnel and working on recognition of the profession of compliance officer, according to industry insiders.

Multiple Chinese departments are undertaking training programs for employees working on corporate compliance, said Zhang Shun, deputy director with Commercial Legal Service Center of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, at a discussion with compliance professionals in New York on June 26.

Zhang said as China’s further opening-up requires better corporate compliance, Chinese companies are facing increasing compliance pressures in their overseas operations from both developed countries like the United States and some underdeveloped countries along the route of Belt and Road Initiative.

However, efforts are underway to formally list compliance officer as a new profession by Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and China could need as many as 500,000 compliance officers in the future, Zhang said.

Hongxia Liu, US representative of Beijing New Century Academy on Transnational Corporations, also agreed that China absolutely needs to list compliance officer as a new profession in a bid to cope with compliance risks.

Compliance department shall be functional and compliance officers shall understand how to execute compliance programs. Otherwise, the companies equipped with a compliance department could continue to be sanctioned due to compliance issues, said Liu.

China’s authorities have started to issue relevant rules and regulations of compliance for enterprises since 2006.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council issued a guidance of compliance management for central State-owned enterprises in November 2018, and the compliance guidance for enterprises’ overseas operations was released by the National Development and Reform Commission and other six departments in December 2018.