Int'l Companies Praised for Helping China's EnvironmentA group of university students from this capital of southwestern China's Sichuan Province launched on July 14 a tree-planting activity in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan.This is merely a small part of a major environmental program titled the "Unilever Living Environment Initiative: Clean Water and Green Mountains for China" recently initiated by Unilever, a transnational supplier of daily commodities. Under the program, Unilever plans to spend 35 million yuan to plant millions of trees across the country, mostly in desert areas, in five years. This has made the company the largest foreign donor for tree-planting in China. According to local officials, many foreign companies contacted the Chinese authorities or the CEF after they learned about Unilever's donations. In the meantime, local experts and scholars have urged the promulgation of relevant laws encouraging companies and individuals to make donations for environmental purposes. In some foreign countries, enterprises or individuals enjoy favorable tax policies if they donate to charitable programs, they noted. With appropriate policies, domestic companies and individuals may invest more money in environmental protection, Qu said. |
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