The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) announced Wednesday that it had allocated 4.23 billion yuan (620 million U.S. dollars) of donations to the country's quake-hit southwestern areas as of the end of last year.

About 3.5 billion yuan of the donations was transferred to quake-hit regions of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Yunnan, Ningxia, Guizhou for relief and post-quake reconstruction.

Another 180 million yuan was spent on emergency rescue missions and purchasing relief materials, and 500 million yuan was spent on purchasing and building temporary housing.

The rest of the 4.23 billion yuan was spent on communication, volunteer recruitment, mental support for quake-affected people and office supplies among others things.

The RCSC received a total of 5.712 billion yuan in money and materials during its donation campaign for the Wenchuan earthquake.

Among the 1.482 billion yuan yet to be spent, 1.1 billion would be allocated for on-going projects, while the remaining 382 million yuan was still available for other projects.

Apart from the donations from the Red Cross, the country's Ministry of Civil Affairs had allocated 5.06 billion yuan as of Oct. 31, 2009 to reconstruction in the southwest Chinese regions hit by the 8-magnitude earthquake of May 12, 2008, according to a statement released Tuesday.