Donations to charities in the country are set to hit a record high this year, following relief efforts for some of the worst natural disasters in decades, a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Affairs has said.

"We expect the total amount of donations to reach close to 100 billion yuan (US$14.6 billion) by the end of the year, which is equal to 0.4 percent of China's GDP," Vice-Minister Dou Yupei said in an interview on the government's website on Wednesday.

"For the May 12 quake in Sichuan alone, 60 billion yuan of donations have poured in," Dou said.

Dou said the current global financial crisis has impacted donations to the country's charities, but the effect would be "limited".

Two weeks ahead of a national charity conference in Beijing, a month-long fundraising event in Dalian, Liaoning Province, has already reportedly drawn 136 million yuan of donations for 13 foundations.

"Though we are troubled to a great extent by the global financial turmoil, we will never forget those who need help the most," Sun Yinhuan, president of Yida Co Ltd, which contributed 30 million yuan to the charities, told China Daily on Thursday.

Still, Dou said the absence of a comprehensive law on donations is a major cause of concern for the country's charity sector - where the authority of charities is sometimes questioned or challenged.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs recently released nominees for the China Charity Awards this year, naming more than 300 companies, organizations and individuals as models for the sector.

Companies that have donated more than 15 million yuan this year have been put on the list, the ministry said on Wednesday.

But members of the public have called for such recognition of social responsibility to be more comprehensive than just considering donations, and challenged the records of some of the nominees.

The China National Tobacco Corp, which has generated controversy for the impact of its business on people's health and the environment, was one such award nominee.

The company and its employees donated 339 million yuan for reconstruction and relief work in the May 12 earthquake.

A number of foreign countries have excluded tobacco companies as donors and refused donations from companies that have a history of damaging the environment, but China's charity sector is still in a nascent stage, Wang Zhenyao, director of department of charity coordination and promotion with the ministry, told the Beijing News on Thursday.

"It is not quite appropriate for us to set a strict ethical standard for donor companies (at such a time)," Wang was quoted as saying.

(China Daily November 28, 2008)