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HK's hearts reach out to Sichuan

By Hong Liang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-20 07:28

As a Hong Kong person living on the mainland, I felt particularly proud that my hometown has mounted what the local media described as a "massive" campaign to raise money and help for the relief of the victims of the earthquake in Sichuan province.

Within days after the earthquake, Hong Kong raised a total of more than HK$600 million, including HK$300 million from the government, and the remaining portion from businesses and private citizens. A fund raiser reported that at one collection point in Causeway Bay, one of Hong Kong's busiest commercial districts, passersby donated about HK$70,000 in cash within three hours.

Hong Kong people have been well-known for their generosity when called upon to donate money to help victims of natural disasters. But this is the first time that so large an amount was given with so much compassion toward relief work outside the city's boundaries.

I was not in Hong Kong to share the emotion of my fellow citizens as they watched the tragedy unfolding on television every evening. But many friends had called me simply to share their grief and express their sympathy toward the many thousands of people living in the area devastated by the quake.

Sichuan may seem far away to many people in Hong Kong. But we could feel the pain and rejoice in the triumph as we watched a young girl rescued from under a pile of rubble. Even if all our donations were spent on saving that one life, I believe that it would have been worth it, and I am sure that many of my fellow citizens think the same.

We should bear in mind that Hong Kong owes its prosperity, at least partly, to the economic development on the mainland. Economic reform on the mainland in the past 30 years has provided Hong Kong entrepreneurs with unprecedented opportunities, that have helped catapult the city from a low-cost manufacturing base to an international financial center.

A part of the wealth that has raised our living standard to among the highest in the world was created by the millions of migrant workers in Hong Kong-owned factories in the Pearl River Delta region. Many of those workers come from Sichuan and some of them may well have come from the quake-stricken region.

We feel that we have a responsibility beyond humanitarian concern to offer help to victims of the earthquake. In fact, HK$600 million isn't all that big an amount. There is a need for an on-going campaign to raise fund to help finance the reconstruction of the devastated region.

This is going to be a monumental task costing billions of yuan. The upturned roads, broken bridges and twisted railway tracks are in urgent need to be repaired or replaced. Collapsed schools and hospitals have to be rebuilt and massive financial assistance must be offered to people to rebuild homes and start a new life.

Many Hong Kong millionaires are known to have donated large sums of money to building schools and hospitals bearing their names in various cities and townships on the mainland. I am sure they will consider it a worthy cause to contribute to the building of new schools and hospitals in the earthquake-stricken region.

I think we share the same wish to not only rebuild that region but to build it better than before. That's the least we can do to those who perished in the quake.

E-mail: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/20/2008 page10)