Since 1997, DIHK is supporting the Chinese chamber organization to establish a Chinese and English
national database of private enterprises who are members of the chambers. This is the first national database about
private enterprises in China who have never been systematically surveyed before. It is also the first database in China
to fully utilize international standard classification systems for products (HS-Code) and industry (NACE-Code), and one
of only few enterprise databases consistently built for use both in Chinese and in English. Data entered in Chinese by
regional chambers is automatically translated to English by the central database engine. More
languages, such as German and French may later be added.
The DIHK-ACFIC Partnership Project
has developed software for data entry by provincial and city chambers, provided computer hardware to ACFIC and
135 regional chambers, developed server software for the bilingual presentation of the database content on the
internet, and developed data retrieval and data presentation software linked with digital maps for CD-ROM. In 24 seminars
sponsored by the project, about 500 employees of regional chambers have been trained in using the software.
Main objectives of the database are
to provide a tool for establishing business contacts between enterprises, both within China and between China
and other countries;
to improve the membership management by the chambers, facilitating efficient dissemination of information to
members, carrying out surveys, sending event invitations to specific target groups etc.;
to increase the knowledge of the chambers about their members and thus to optimize the chambers' representation
of the private sector in politics and legislation.
Due to huge difficulties in data collection and data entry, the national database is still in an experimental phase. It
currently (2002) contains information about 30,000 enterprises and individuals. Data quality and quantity vary widely
from one region to another. The English internet version of this experimental database may be tested online at
The database is password protected. For limited access, please enter "user" and "pass" in the respective fields of
the entry mask (most search functions are available, but some detail information about each enterprise will not be
displayed). For full access to all data, please contact the database administrator,
All regional chambers who received computer hardware from the partnership project have agreed by contract to enter
high quality data of 70% of their members within a specified period of time and to carry out regular updates. Some of
the chambers have already fulfilled this task. We recommend these chambers to the international business community
for their reliability and their ability to support business contacts with their members:
We have also compiled a complete list of all chambers above county level (prefectures,
provinces, China) with information about equipment provided by the project and the status of each chamber's database.