Rough statistics showed that as of Wednesday, foreign-funded enterprises, multinationals and businesses with investment from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan had made donations of nearly 3.4 billion yuan (US$489 million) in cash and goods for victims of the May 12 earthquake, China's Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

The total included 2.8 billion yuan in cash and 596 million yuan worth of food, medicine, telecom equipment, motor vehicles, digging devices and lighting, the ministry reported.

"A lot of multinationals and overseas-funded companies are very concerned over the earthquake and they have been in contact with related Chinese government departments on how to contribute in quake relief work and reconstruction," Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming told a press conference on May 22.

Chen added people in China's mainland were, and should be, grateful to all those individuals and enterprises who had given a helping hand during rescue and relief work after the earthquake.

In another development, the Information Office of the State Council announced that donations from home and abroad to the quake-hit regions had reached 37.3 billion yuan as of Thursday noon, up 2.5 billion yuan from the previous day.

So far, 10.4 billion yuan, in cash and relief materials, had been forwarded to the earthquake-affected areas, the office said.

The death toll from the earthquake reached 68,109 as of noon on Wednesday. Another 364,552 were injured and 19,851 were still listed as missing, according to the Information Office.

(Xinhua New Agency May 30, 2008)