On September 21st, CCB signed an agreement with China Education Development Fund in Beijing whereby CCB donated 120 million yuan to set up a special fund to start the “Build for the future – CCB financing poor high school students plan”.  This was CCB’s major move to fulfil its corporate social responsibility and a gesture to support the building of a harmonious society.  It was also the largest single donation towards education by a domestic bank.

According to the spokesman of CCB, Hu Changmiao, the main aim of the “Build for the future – CCB financing poor high school students plan” is to assist poor high school students of good academic achievement, in particular those in the mid west and north eastern provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the jurisdiction of the Central Government) to complete their high school education.  With the 120 million yuan, and taking 1,500 yuan per student as a standard, then 13,000 students would be benefited each year and a total of 80,000 students would be benefited in six years.

To ensure the funds are used appropriately, managed efficiently and monitored properly, CCB and China Education Development Fund jointly establish a set of provisional regulations through which details of the establishment, management, payout, etc. are clearly stipulated.  Regular public disclosures are in force to allow public scrutiny.

Hu Changmiao said that, to fulfil corporate social responsibility and feedback the society are highly emphasised by CCB board members, the management and the supervisory board and are also treated an important task by all staff.  Many CCB party members, board members, supervisory board members and the management staff have personally participated in the activity.  Some relevant departments of the headquarters and principle branches have made a lot of studies and researches to ascertain the right strategy.  The poor high school students are chosen this time because of two reasons.  On the one hand, it is CCB’s long tradition to finance education.  On the other hand, it is the result of the latest objective analysis of the country’s education development.  Both the relevant government department and professionals agree unanimously that this group are most in need of assistance.  In recent years, the government finance department and the charitable organisations have made substantial contributions towards free education and university education.  This includes “Two free, one subsidy” to the poor rural primary and secondary students, grants and loans to university students.  Comparatively, poor high school students are receiving much less attention from government or charitable organisation.  This group is in fact the bridge between free education and post secondary education.  Their importance should not be ignored.  If poor students cannot attend high school, it will affect the future composition of the university students and the source of future talents and will eventually lead to inequality of opportunity of receiving proper education.  According to research data, up to 2006, 82.3% of the poor student’s family in the mid and western provinces became poor because of sending their kids to high school.  20% of the poor high school students was facing the problem of school dropout.  At present, the total number of high school students in these regions amounts to 9 million plus, of which about 20% are poor representing 1.8 million people.  Taking 1,500 to 2,000 yuan per student per year, the total funding required is 3.6 billion yuan, a terrible shortage of funding.  In this respect, CCB and China Education Development Fund jointly launched this plan to help this poor group and at the same time urge the public to pay more attention to them so that eventually everyone could fulfil the dream of completing the education process.

The make up of this donation is partly from the Bank and partly voluntary donation from 300,000 staffs.  Through this charitable activity, all staff of the Bank have participated in the process and some have volunteered to have constant contacts with these students to ensure they will develop properly.  At the same time, the staff are educated to understand more about the rural society, to strengthen their sense of social responsibility, to promote the building of corporate culture, to perform their duties diligently as well as to contribute more to the society and the corporation.

China Education Development Fund is approved by the State Council.  It is a national public fund jointly promoted and supported by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance.  The principal aim is to assist poor students to complete their education.  It is a professional organisation of high credibility.  In spite of the Fund’s short history, its accomplishments in assisting education have been phenomenal.  CCB believes that co-operating with the Fund will effectively assist the poor yet ambitious students to complete their education as well as to develop healthily.