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Companies in
China assist in disaster relief
An increasing number of enterprises in China's mainland had
provided, or pledged to provide, financial and material support
to help disaster relief following Monday's massive earthquake,
government ministries said here Wednesday.
According to the State-owned Assets
Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council,
16 state-owned companies had donated a total of 113 million yuan
(16 million U.S. dollars) to help quake victims.
Eight of the companies donated 10
million yuan or more, including China Merchants (Holdings) Co.,
Ltd., China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC), China
Southern Airlines Co., Ltd., China National Petroleum
Corporation and China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company.
China FAW Group Corporation, Japanese
carmaker Toyato and their joint venture donated a total of 10
million yuan and 10 vehicles.
Many other automakers had donated
money or vehicles, including Shanghai Automotive Industry
Corporation, Geely Group Co., Ltd., Chery Automobile and BYD Co.
Ltd.
In total, mainland auto manufacturers
had offered financial and material support exceeding 50 million
yuan (7.2 million dollars).
Chinese lenders had also offered
financial support to disaster relief.
The state-owned "big four"
lenders -- the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China
Construction Bank, Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China
-- had donated in total 57 million yuan (8.1 million U.S.
dollars) as of Tuesday. Donations from their staff were still
increasing.
The Import and Export Bank of China,
the Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank and China
Development Bank also made donations.
Many foreign-funded enterprises had
also offered financial support, such as Pfizer Pharmaceuticals
Ltd., HSBC, APP and Carrefour, according to the Commerce
Ministry.
In addition, enterprises from Taiwan,
Hong Kong and Macau which invest in the mainland had donated
money, food or materials.
Formosa Plastics Corp. donated 100
million yuan (14.3 million dollars) while Foxconn Technology
Group gave 60 million yuan (8.6 million dollars).
By Wednesday afternoon, enterprises
based in or investing in the mainland had donated an estimated
1.5 billion yuan (208 million U.S. dollars), according to a
calculations by China's web portal Sina.com.
On Monday afternoon, the
7.8-magnitude earthquake centered on Wenchuan County, northwest
of Sichuan, jolted many parts of the country.
By 2 p.m. on Wednesday, the death
toll was 14,866.
2008-05-14 |