Govt officials, SOE executives quit EMBA programs amid anti-corruption campaign

Chinese government officials and leaders of State-owned enterprises have started to quit from the country's Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) programs following the central government's anti-graft campaign, the Beijing Times reported Monday.

The EMBA program, a postgraduate training for business leaders, has long been considered as a talent hub and social platform for government officials and business executives.

Since August, various kinds of EMBA schools, especially the established Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) and China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), have witnessed many government officials and business executives leave, said the report, citing unnamed sources.

A PR representative from CKGSB told the Global Times Monday that the company refused to comment on the matter. Calls to CEIBS remained unanswered by press time.

Analysts said that it is a good trend and a reflection of government success in the corruption crackdown against government officials and executives of State-backed companies.

The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee issued an announcement in late July prohibiting government officials and State-run companies' leaders from participating in various kinds of high-fees training programs.

"The attendance of high-fees EMBA programs is very likely to breed corruption," Zhu Lijia, a public management professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times Monday. "Government officials and leaders of State-owned companies usually either use public money or sponsors from private enterprises to pay the high tuition."

The tuition fees of CEIBS and CKGSB in 2014 reached 588,000 yuan ($95,734) for a 20-month program and 688,000 yuan for a two-year program respectively, according to their websites.

In the autumn EMBA program developed by Tsinghua University in 2013, 9 percent of the students were government officials, while 35 percent came from State-owned enterprises, according to media reports.