Geely donates millions for quake relief in northwest China

HANGZHOU, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Geely Automobile, China's biggest private-run carmaker, Wednesday announced a 22-million-yuan (3.2 million U.S. dollars) donation for quake relief in northwest China.

The donations included money from Geely Group and 14,000 staff, but the staff did not include employees of Sweden's Volvo, which Geely is in the process of taking over from Ford, said Li Shufu, president of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.

"The donations are from Geely's entity capital, and it shows Geely's financial ability and China's tradition of helping each other." Li said.

Geely's donation accounts for a fifth of the total donations of Zhejiang Province, where Geely is based.

Geely donated 10 million yuan for quake-hit Wenchuan, southwest China's Sichuan Province, in 2008.

Geely signed an acquisition contract to buy Volvo, an auto unit of US carmaker Ford Motor, for 1.8 billion U.S. dollars at the end of March.