China's Glorious Cause has helped 4.6 million Chinese people cast off poverty in the past eight years of its existence.

The Cause, initiated by private enterprise has attracted the participation of 14,407 businessmen from China's mainland, the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan Province, with a total investment of 52.3 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion), according to information from the Second Executive meeting of the Ninth All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce that opened Saturday.

The Cause has invested 8.5 billion yuan in education and other public welfare causes, providing training for two million people and jobs for 2.1 million people, statistics show.

A delegation from the China Association for the Promotion of the Glorious Cause (CAPGC) visited the United States and Mexico in September, as well as four United Nations agencies in a bid to promote international cooperation.

The Glorious Cause will sign a framework agreement with the United Nations Development Program this year to set up a new anti-poverty foundation, sources at the CAPGC said.

In April 1994, ten private businessmen agreed to build a poverty relief project targeting China's backward areas. In July 1994, the Glorious Cause came into being to help these areas through technology transfer and technical training.

(China Daily December 1, 2003)