2010-11-03 07:25

A woman with a cataract receives a checkup in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province on Sept 9. The Nanjing Charity Federation is cooperating with a local ophthalmology hospital to offer free surgeries to poor senior patients. [Wang Chengbing / For China Daily]

BEIJING - The country's top think tank said private-run enterprises were the major driving force for China's charity donations in 2009.

Private-run enterprises donated around 5.43 billion yuan ($812 million) in 2009, which accounted for about 41.35 percent of total donations from enterprises in 2009, according to an annual report on China's philanthropy development released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Tuesday.

A total of 282 private-run enterprises donated more than 1 million yuan each, which amounted to 62.9 percent of enterprises involved in charity last year, said the report.

"More private entrepreneurs want to exercise their social responsibility after accumulating huge wealth," Li Zhiyan, director of the non-profit Social Resources Institute, said in the report.

The report also said the real estate industry had been "generous" and "active" in charity donations in China last year.

Chinese organizations received donations totaling 33.2 billion yuan in 2009, a 3.5 percent increase on the amount in 2008, according to the report.

However, charity donation had not become a habit for citizens in China, Fan Baojun, president of the China Charity Federation, said on Tuesday in Beijing.

For example, charity donations from individuals in 2008 for the first time exceeded those from businesses, as ordinary people played an active role in relief work for the May 12 Sichuan earthquake. But the commitment to charity decreased when people gradually recovered from the pain in 2009, he said.

"Charity should become a habit for common people in their daily life rather than for business people or the rich," he said.

He also said transparency in the charity sector should be realized through social supervision.

"Many people who donate money to government admit they have no idea how or where the money is being spent," he said.

"But some charity programs under non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provide more transparent feedback, and they should play a more important role in providing relevant services," he said.

"The human resources in civil affairs departments are limited, so governments should buy services from NGOs," he said.

Under the current rules, NGOs have to be affiliated with a government department before they can register with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

"Some local governments have introduced rules to oversee charity donations and increase supervision," Zheng Yuanchang, a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said on Tuesday.

Overseas gifts are important By Cheng Yingqi and Chen Jia BEIJING - Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents, as well as overseas Chinese, contributed 81.2 percent of donations that came from outside the Chinese mainland, academic reports said on Tuesday. China received 4.51 billion yuan ($674.9 million) worth of donations from countries and regions outside the mainland last year, accounting for 14.1 percent of the total collected from home and abroad. Of this, 3.66 billion yuan came from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as from Chinese people overseas. The result was released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in its annual report on China's philanthropy development. However, experts said the number might be overvalued. "Since China does not have a centralized institution for charitable statistics, plus some foreign funds come to the country via various channels besides charity, it is hard to determine the exact figure," said Huang Haoming, vice-chairman of the China Association for NGO Cooperation. Compared to domestic donations, more overseas donations go to improve education and healthcare. Guangdong province received more donations than other regions of the country, because many overseas Chinese come from the province. It was followed by Beijing and Sichuan province.

Special Coverage: Charitable China