Under the agreement, the United States-based Mercy Corps International (MCI) will provide CFPA with 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) in fund and materials of the same value this year.

MCI will continue to offer no less than 10 million yuan of fund and materials every year in the future, said Diana Tsui, managing director of MCI's East Asia Pacific region.

According to Tsui, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like CFPA have played an important role in China's charity and poverty reduction, and the working transparency and credibility of them have had much improved in recent years.

Bowen Wang, vice president and China director of World Children's Fund, said the organization would raise materials worth 8 million yuan (US$966,500) for China's poverty-stricken and disaster-hit areas.

He said the successful cooperation between Chinese NGOs and international charity organizations had drawn more heeds of the world to China's poverty alleviation work.

Ding Xuedong, an official of the Ministry of Finance, said poverty reduction in China had become a problem the whole society concerns about.

The Chinese government encouraged NGOs to extend collaboration with international organizations, not only to enrich resources used for poverty alleviation, but also to learn some advanced mechanism and experience in the management of poverty reduction funds, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2004)