The government has placed more importance on supporting and regulating non-profit organizations especially after the country's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, a ministry spokesman said in Beijing.

Those social organizations, including industrial associations, have worked to create links between enterprises and government departments, the spokesman said.

Minister of Civil Affairs Li Xueju said on Monday that China would cultivate more non-governmental organizations, offer preferential support for enterprises entering China's social welfare system and learn from other countries in a bid to expand public welfare.

The ministry launched a website chinanpo.gov.cn early this month to provide information on more than 240,000 social groups in the country.

Meanwhile, to better regulate the behaviour of non-profit organizations and help them improve their discipline, the ministry has punished three organizations which failed to obey the Social Organization Registry Regulation.

The three organizations, the China Society on Behavioural Jurisprudence, China Society on Human Being Sciences and the China Association on Architecture and Decoration, had their operating licences suspended for one to six months after they established branches without ministry approval.