Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu Friday called for step-up endeavor to improve the credibility of China's charity organizations and raise the transparency of charity donations.

Hui made the remarks when meeting with prize-winners of the 2009 China Charity Award. The annual award was set up by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 2005 to honor individuals, organizations and projects that have made outstanding contributions in this regard.

Hui said efforts were needed to improve laws, regulations and government policies to foster charity organizations at grass-roots communities and encourage more to give.

He urged enhanced efforts to supervise and manage charity programs and improve the working standards of charity personnel.

The 2009 China Charity Award went to 17 individuals and 15 domestic and foreign enterprises, as well as 20 charity projects, on Thursday.

China received more than 33 billion yuan (4.83 billion U.S. dollars) in donations in 2009. Education, disaster-relief projects, and the social services sectors were the areas that attracted most charity donations.