Over the last ten years, the average personal donation made by Chinese has been only 1.7 yuan (US$0.21), the China Youth Daily quoted a source with the Children's Foundation of China as saying on Monday.
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"There is much room for improvement for the charity cause in China and the government should institute tax incentives to encourage giving," according to Tian Di, director of the managing committee of the Foundation's minors' ideological and moral education branch.
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No more than 100,000 Chinese companies, a mere one percent of the country's 10 million registered firms, donate to charity, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.
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"Given the low ratio of tax exemption, enterprises in China lack the economic incentive to donate," said Xu Yongguang, vice-chairman of China Charity Federation, at the China Charity Conference held last November in Beijing, when the Chinese government promised to provide a convenient and standardized service in donation-related tax reduction and exemption.
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"China needs to create a credible, transparent and self-disciplined charity system with independent third-party evaluation which receives supervision from government, media and society," Tian said. "People can be confident about where their donation goes if the charity organization is credible."
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It is estimated that by the end of 2004, about 5 billion yuan (US$617 million) had been donated to China's charitable organizations, accounting for 0.05 percent of the gross domestic product. In comparison, it was 2.17 percent in the US.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2006)