China has approximately 140 million senior citizens aged over 60
who are in need of social assistance, said Li Xueju, minister of
civil affairs, at a two-day China Charity Conference opened in
Beijing on Sunday.
"There are 60 million disaster victims in the country each year
and 75 million people in rural areas living in abject poverty call
for social assistance," Li said.
This is unaffordable to the government only, acknowledged Li,
who underscored the role of charity organizations in carrying out
aid assistance activities.
"Charity is one of the crucial measures to channel social funds
to help those people in need, and it could also narrow down the gap
between the rich and the poor, so as to balance disparity between
the people of various social strata," said vice premier Hui
Liangyu at the opening ceremony of the conference.
Hui also urged governments at varies levels to coordinate and
incorporate charity activities into their social and economic
development plans.
China currently has 280,000 non-governmental charity
organizations registered in the Ministry of Civil Affairs by the
end of 2004. And the membership of the China Charity
Federation has risen to 168 in the past 11 years since its
founding in 1994.
"However, China's charities are still at their initial stages in
view of public awareness, donation system, laws and regulations,
and supervision mechanism, said Li. The China Charity Conference,
held at the sponsorship of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the
China Charity Federation, has drawn more than 700 participants.
(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2005)