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 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) 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.

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 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 while Foxconn Technology Group gave 60 million yuan.

By Wednesday afternoon, enterprises based in or investing in the mainland had donated an estimated 1.5 billion yuan, 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.

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