China has received 6.023 billion yuan (860 million U.S. dollars) in cash and goods for earthquake relief from donors at home and abroad as of 1 p.m. Saturday, according to the Information Office of the State Council.
Domestic donations nearly doubled the figure on Friday to reach 4.9 billion yuan, including 4.185 billion yuan in cash and 720 million yuan of relief materials, the office said.
This is the first day that domestic donations have surpassed relief supplies allocated by the central budget, which rose to 3.982 billion yuan as of Saturday afternoon.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) had received donations of 122 million yuan and the China Charity Federation had received about 450 million yuan.
Local governments, domestic companies and social institutions had donated or pledged to donate 3.18 billion yuan to the affected areas.
The Red Cross Society of China announced it had received 1.83 billion yuan of relief supplies as of midday on Saturday from home and abroad, and had delivered 400 million yuan in cash and goods to affected areas.
Donations from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan reached 580 million yuan on Saturday, which included 558 million yuan in cash and 22 million yuan in relief goods.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs ordered its local agencies on Saturday to conduct donation work in a "fair and transparent" way and step up management of donated money and relief materials to prevent embezzlement and ensure they reached the quake victims as soon as possible.
The MCA and the Ministry of Finance jointly launched an emergency procurement program on Wednesday to buy relief materials, including tents, lamps, clothes, cotton-padded quilts and make-shift toilets, direct from factories.
The ministries have decided to expand the procurement list on Saturday by adding larger tents with a size of 36 square meters, mobile homes and prefabricated homes.
The One Foundation Project, initiated by kung fu star Jet Li in 2007, had raised 42.7 million yuan for quake relief by Saturday noon with almost 500,000 people making donations via the Internet.
Accompanying the first batch of the foundation's supplies, Jet Li arrived in Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu on Saturday afternoon.
Li said apart from relief supplies, he brought with him nearly 500,000 loving hearts. "In face of the devastating disaster, the kind-hearted nature of human beings has been aroused."
The 7.8-magnitude quake, centered on Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, affected many parts of the country. The death toll has risen to 28,881 nationwide as of 2 p.m. Saturday, while 198,347 people were injured.
(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2008)