The State Council Development Research Center's of Social Development Research Department and the English Club organized a symposium on The Welfare System and Economic Development, in its office building, on Aug 27, with a lecture by Li Bingqin, of Australian National University, on Social Policies and Economic Growth, one by Anton Cornelis Hemerijck of Vrije University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on The European welfare system: From Social Protection to Social Investment, and by Liu Tao, of Bielefeld University, Germany, on a Case Study on German Social Policies and Economic Development.

Chairing the symposium were Gong Sen, deputy director of the DRC's Social Development, Research Department, and Wang Wei, deputy director of DRC's Market Economy Institute.