More efforts to spur corporate social responsibility

Policymakers are stepping up efforts to create a conducive environment for companies to undertake corporate social responsibility, as China's target date of 2020 to eradicate rural poverty is approaching.

Qu Tianjun, head of poverty alleviation with The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said the office has been setting up a mechanism to encourage more companies to join in poverty alleviation efforts.

The mechanism would include tax benefits, which were already been implemented, and many others in pipeline.

Wang Litao, head of poverty alleviation and public services of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, said they will continue offering financial support to certain companies that have been carrying out poverty alleviation activities, and seek cooperation with commercial banks to provide more financial services to those companies.

The remarks were made recently at the launch ceremony of 50 Typical Cases of Targeted Poverty Alleviation by Chinese Enterprises, an industry report jointly released by The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development as well as the Research Center for Corporate Social Responsibility under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The report included case studies of 50 companies whose poverty alleviation actions were considered both innovative and easy for other companies to learn from.

"The 50 cases were selected from a total of 641. We invited 17 experts and they made the decision based on five parameters, namely accuracy, effectiveness, innovation, sustainability and reproducibility. We hope that their experiences can serve as a reference to companies that are new to the field," said Zhong Hongwu, division chief at the Research Center for Corporate Social Responsibility under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Among the 50 cases selected, 25 of them are State-owned enterprises, 22 of them are private companies, and three are foreign-invested companies.

Among all, China Resources (Holdings) Co Ltd topped the list.

Instead of making a donation to people in need, the company has developed a new model of poverty alleviation called the "beef cattle bank" to help with the local economy in Haiyuan county of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, a country-level poverty-stricken area.

Just as the name implies, the company offers a 6,000 yuan ($893) loan with no interest to each local resident whom they sell cows to, as the average price of 10,000 yuan per cow appeared relatively high for a local resident who only has about 4,225 yuan of annual income.

Local residents who join the "beef cattle bank" can easily pay off their loan in two years — one year waiting for their cows to give birth to calves, and another year for the calves to grow, after which residents can trade one calf for 6,000 yuan.

According to China Resources, the move was made to help the local job market boom, which has a long-term benefit in battling poverty.