Quake donations reach more than US$6.4 billion

By Yang Lifei  |   2008-6-20  |     ONLINE EDITION

DONATIONS to aid areas devastated by last month's earthquake in Sichuan Province have reached 45.04 billion yuan (US$6.43 billion) as of yesterday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said, according to the Beijing Morning Post.

It added that about 1.3 billion yuan in promised donations from businesses have not yet arrived, the report said.

Some companies and entrepreneurs just broke their word. Some will pay the contributions by installments and others will not appropriate the funds until a specific beneficiary has been selected, Peng Ling, an official with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, told the newspaper.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, foreign businesses, multinational companies and corporations in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan had paid a total of 3.776 billion yuan in cash and goods by 12pm yesterday.

Several corporations that were said not to have fulfilled their promises have since handed over donations. These firms include Texas Instruments, Auchan Trading Co and Haixin Iron and Steel Group, the report said.

Haixin even released a statement stating it not only paid the promised 11 million yuan, but offered an additional cash donation of 2 million yuan.
　　
However, Taiwan-based China Steel Corp, Wal-Mart China and Google (China) said promised donations were still on the way, the report said.

The latest report by the ministry also showed Nike had given 10 million yuan in cash as promised, but goods worth 20 million yuan had not arrived yet, the report said.

Nokia has promised to give 53 million yuan to earthquake relief, but only 16 million yuan in cash and 3 million yuan in goods have been received so far, said the report.


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