JD chief gives a helping hand to his hometown

Liu Qiangdong, CEO of JD.com Inc, China's second-largest e-commerce company, has announced he will donate more than 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) to develop public welfare projects in his hometown of Suqian in Jiangsu province.

The donation will be used to establish a civic culture plaza, a kindergarten and a nursing home. Liu said he wanted to help address problems faced by poor families in Suqian related to children's education and healthcare.

Liu has already done a great deal to assist Suqian's economic development and improve residents' livelihoods with the building of JD's national customer service center, information technology park, logistics management center and cloud computing base in Suqian, providing jobs for nearly 10,000 people.

JD is taking a lead in boosting rural e-commerce development and upgrading of the economy in Suqian. Since 2016 JD has helped 3,600 enterprises in Suqian, whose e-commerce sales surpassed 700 million yuan.

The local call center in Suqian employs 20,000 people, contributing 2 billion yuan in tax revenue and encouraging many migrant workers to return home.

"I hope these programs can help build a well-off society in Suqian," Liu said.

Zhang Zetian, Liu's wife, also the honorary director of JD Public Welfare Foundation, is promoting the implementation of the country's education program.

Nanjing Foreign Language School's Xianlin Branch, Suqian e-commerce industrial park and JD will jointly establish a school in Suqian. The school will enroll students from September 2018.

Zhang, a graduate of Nanjing Foreign Language School, said she was very glad to introduce quality schools to Suqian and give more children greater educational choices.

Liu said the classrooms, offices, dormitories and dining halls will be equipped with central air conditioners and a haze filtration system, and they will also provide free dormitories for teachers. The teachers, who have worked for 10 consecutive years and obtained the excellent teacher title twice, will be allocated a well-furnished home.

Liu hoped the school could attract some of the best teachers in the country.

"Because of a lack of education resources, children have been unable to enjoy a fair education opportunity," said Liu.

Xu He contributed to this story.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn