With millions of people still living in poverty, a senior Chinese official called on private businesses to contribute more to help close the country's yawning income gap.

"Private entrepreneurs should follow both market principles and the fine Chinese tradition of helping others, and work for both personal wealth and the whole nation's common wealth," said Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing Wednesday.

Jia made the remark in a meeting with a group of private entrepreneurs who just returned from an inspection tour of under-developed areas in north China's Shanxi Province.

Statistics show that China's population living in absolute poverty decreased from 250 million in 1978 to 26.1 million at the end of last year. China still has 23 million rural people whose per-capita yearly income is less than 683 yuan (US$84).

The Chinese Association for Corporate Social Responsibility (CACSR) which is to be officially launched in August is calling on businesses to shoulder more social responsibilities. It wants firms to take real action such as promoting environmental protection and helping alleviate poverty.

Multinationals such as Nokia, IBM and CISCO, and Chinese companies like the China Pingan Insurance Company, the TCL Corporation, and the China Merchants Bank, are members of CACSR.

(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2006)