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Private business owners, big donators

By Tu Lei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-06-19 13:59

As his company's assets surged over the past 20 years, so did Gao Xiang's
charitable donations.

Gao is chairman of the board of Shentai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, a
privately-run company in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, with
assets that have increased from 3,000 yuan to 400 million yuan in 20
years. Over the time, the company has made 36 million yuan' worth of
charitable donations, equaling more than 8 percent of its total assets.

In May 2005, the company's donations towards the establishment of three
Project Hope Primary Schools helped provide educations for 500 children.
In July of that year, he also sponsored the "Gaoxiang Vision Aid Fund" to
assist more than 200 people suffering from cataracts.

During the 2003 SARS outbreak, Shentai donated 13 million yuan' worth of
medicines to the affected areas, including Beijing, Tianjin Municipality,
and North China's Hebei Province and Shanxi Province.

In 1998, Shentai donated 500,000 yuan' worth of medicine to affected
areas of Heilongjiang Province, where the Songhua River had flooded,
though the company was facing a capital shortage at the time.

Gao continued the company's charitable efforts in 2006, when he embarked
on effort to build medicine distribution networks to lower pharmaceutical
costs for rural residents.

Gao Xiang is not alone in his efforts, as more privately-run companies in
China are participating in charitable giving.

Under the direction of board chairman Qiu Dedao, Hangzhou Daoyuan
Chemical Fiber Group Corporation, a privately-owned company, donated 100
million yuan to help leukemia patients in East China's Zhejiang Province
in September 2006.

Wang Zhentao, president of Aokang Group, the largest domestic
privately-run shoe manufacturer, set up a charity fund to help university
students in June 2007. His company has dominated 90 million yuan since
1993.

In 2006, Geely Group gave 50 million yuan to the China Education
Development Foundation in 2006, to help freshmen finish four years of
study.

Geely Group has invested more than 1 billion yuan in education, and
according to the 2007 Hurun Report's Chinese Philanthropists List, board
chairman Li Shufu ranked seventh on the list, with 278 million yuan in
donations.

Out of 50 enterprises listed on the 2007 Hurun Report's Corporate Social
Responsibility Rank, 16 were privately-run, including Huawei, Midea Group
and China Minsheng Banking Co Ltd.

Statistics from the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce showed
that privately-run enterprises have played an important role in social
charity.

By the end of 2006, nearly 20,000 private enterprises were participating
in the China Guangcai Program, which was founded by private entrepreneurs
looking to alleviate poverty in response to the governmental Eighth
Seven-Year Anti-Poverty Plan. In the past five years, the program has
received more than 15 billion yuan in donations.

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