To encourage the multinational companies to get more involved in charity here, much work should be done to improve relevant laws and policies, says an article in Market News. An excerpt follows:

In the recently released list on the charity donations made by multinational companies in China, people can only find several internationally well-known companies. The rest of the multinationals doing business in China are far from being big donors here.

Admittedly, charity donation is not the only standard measuring the sense of social responsibility of a company. But it has become a well-accepted principle of the modern society that the more money one makes, the bigger his social responsibility is. And making donations is what a business does to reward society.

There may be all kinds of reasons behind the low donations made by the multinationals here. But the authorities should at least create a well-regulated, fair and transparent system facilitating those multinationals that want to do something for charity.

Businesses making generous charity donations in other countries often get some favourable tax treatment. In China, what the businesses can gain from making donations are media coverage and social recognition, which are possible means of getting economic return.

Therefore, it is of key importance to foster an environment that encourages donations. China still has much more to do in this regard.

There are not well-established laws and regulations offering incentives to the businesses enthusiastic to charity. Moreover, there are not enough reliable charity organizations, and there lacks a platform where all the entities devoted to charity could share information with each other. And we also need incentives in economic terms like tax reduction, which could only be granted through economic policies.

(China Daily May 9, 2006)