IT company Tencent topped a charity donation list by donating 83 million yuan (US$13 million) last year for charity causes in the city, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday, Charity Day.
The operator of the popular instant messenger QQ was followed by China Ping An Insurance Co., which has donated 20.55 million yuan in 2009, according to the list compiled by the city civil affairs bureau, Project Care, the Charity Association and the Shenzhen branch of the Red Cross Society.
Tencent and Ping An were the only two companies whose donations have surpassed 10 million yuan. In addition, 31 other companies had donated between 1 million and 10 million yuan in the past year. The number of individual donors of more than 10,000 yuan was 29, according to the list.
Xie Xiantuan, president of Kunxiang Investment Co., topped the individual list with donations of 38.88 million yuan last year. Ma Huateng, founder and CEO of Tencent, donated of 3.59 million yuan in his name, while Chen Yidan, chief administration officer of Tencent, had donated 1.52 million yuan.
Ma was one of the five local tycoons who attended a charity banquet at the invitation of U.S. billionaire philanthropists Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in Beijing last month. Earlier media reports said many domestic billionaires rejected the invitation because they were afraid to be asked to donate their fortunes.
The paper quoted city charity association officials as saying that the development of charitable causes in Shenzhen exceeded the national level.
It is partly because the city is financially strong, said an official, who was not named. But I think a more important reason is that the charity environment here is better. Shenzhen residents are more aware of charity.
Nearly 230 companies and individuals were included in the list. Many Shenzhen residents are charity-minded. Getting involved in charitable causes is involved in people s daily life. It (charity) is no longer a cause exclusively for the wealthy in Shenzhen, the official said. (SD News)
