Regulator asks internet companies to help with poverty alleviation

China's top regulator for internet affairs called for internet associations and enterprises on Friday to create more online projects to help the poor and further contribute to the country's poverty relief.

"Internet enterprises and organizations should be bridges between the poverty relief policy makers and residents in poverty areas as well as make full use of their online platforms to design more activities to benefit the poor," said Ren Xianliang, deputy director of the nation's Cyberspace Administration.

He made the remark during a seminar held by the administration's China Federation of Internet Societies on Friday, which was attended by more than 100 guests, including from internet companies and academies.

"We'll encourage internet enterprises to take their resources of education, e-commerce, tourism and health to poverty regions, and then effectively integrate the regional agricultures, industries and services," added Ren, who is also the head of the federation.

A number of Chinese internet companies, including e-commerce giant Alibaba and WeChat designer Tencent, shared their experience in helping the poor through online platforms during the seminar.

On Thursday, Sina Corp established an office to specialize in handling online affairs relating to poverty relief. It vowed to take advantage of Sina Weibo, Chinese Twitter-like platform, to encourage users, especially those engaged in agriculture and e-commerce, introduce policies against poverty and promote related agricultural products.

It added it would also invest resources worth about 2 billion yuan ($288 million) within two years to support those helping the poor through the weibo and its website.