Quick response

Pengzhou: Intel's Chairman Craig Barrett is no stranger to China. During the past 15 years, he has made 13 trips to the nation, mostly to big cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. But the first stop of his 14th one was a bit different.

On June 22, Barrett arrived at earthquake-stricken Sichuan province to start the company's "iWorld" project, for which it will spend 35 million yuan to provide well-equipped computer rooms and Internet connections for 200 schools in the region. As part of the project, the company will also extend its existing education programs to schools in eight severely affected counties in the province.

The "iWorld" project is the company's latest move to join in the relief and reconstruction work in Sichuan's earthquake-hit region. About 20 hours after the quake, the company moved to contact the China Red Cross to donate $300,000 to the earthquake area, probably the first foreign company to do so. In the following days, employees from its Chengdu factory also volunteered to help accommodate the homeless living in the city's tent camps.

As the reconstruction continues, the company realized its experience in education programs and ability to provide computer and Internet infrastructure could help link teachers and students to the world, and thus launched the "iWorld" project.

On the sidelines of Barrett's visit to Sichuan, CY Yeung, director of Intel China's corporate social responsibility department talked with China Business Weekly reporter Wang Xu about how the company is participating in the relief and reconstruction work after the earthquake.

Q: Intel announced its donation decision about 20 hours after the earthquake. How did you come up with the decision so quickly?

A: On May 12, we were having a meeting in Beijing discussing the itinerary of Barrett's 14th visit to China. In the afternoon, the news of the earthquake came and we then started to discuss what we could do in response to that.

At about 10 pm, we saw the death toll rising to about 7,000 people and realized it was a serious disaster. So we reported the latest situation directly to our headquarters in the US.

At about 1 am, our top executives and the Intel Foundation approved the proposal to donate$300,000 at the first place, which doubled our donation after the last winter's snowstorm disaster. Our top executives in China all stayed up for the whole night to work on the details of the donation and at about 7 am on May 13th, we sent a fax to the China Red Cross to indicate our donation decision. Three hours later, we sent the message to media and the public.

Indeed, that was a very quick response. When we announced the decision the next day, some employees told us they were very proud of what we did.

Q: When did you decide to add another 35 million yuan?

A: Actually, after we made the first donation, we started to discuss what we could do for the next step. There were several proposals at that time. For example, we considered chartering a flight to send tents from the US to Sichuan. Later, we realized it was just impossible to do that when the airport is already working at its maximum capacity.

We also thought about setting up WIMAX hotspots in earthquake areas to restore the communication in the area, just as we did after Katrina hurricane and India Ocean tsunami. But we found out local telecom companies were really doing a good job.

It's likely when we finish setting up the hotspots, they would already restore the mobile services. So we decided to focus on the reconstruction works. And since we had great experience in education programs, we contacted local government to ask their needs and later mapped out the details for the "iWorld" program. Moreover, education is an important aspect of our corporate social responsibility initiatives, as we believe education is the best gift a society can give its young people.

Q: Why did you decide to donate "eClassrooms" rather than school buildings? We have seen a lot of collapsed school buildings. Do you think the need to rebuild schools is more urgent?

A: Indeed, we also considered making donations to construct school buildings. But after discussions with the Sichuan government, we took their advice to offer the program.

Actually, many companies have already made generous donations to help rebuild school buildings. But by now, there was no other company to offer a combination of computer facilities and skill training for both teachers and students, which is also very useful for the students' further development.

We happened to have strong experience in these areas. For example, we have already spent $1 billion over the past 10 years for educational programs globally. In China, we have provided computer skills and teaching methodology training to more than 1.07 million primary and middle school teachers over the past eight years, which is about one tenth of the nation's total. This is really our strength.

Q: After the earthquake, some companies were criticized for being stingy or indifferent. Were you concerned with such pressure?

A: We didn't feel pressure of that kind. A key to maintain the public's confidence in a company is to constantly behave as a good corporate citizen. We have been operating the world's largest corporate sponsored education program for years, which also had a growing presence in China.

Meanwhile, our employees are also encouraged to offer volunteer works to local community in usual ways, which allows us to contribute to the development community.

In Chengdu, more than 72 percent of our employees had participated in volunteer works last year. And we will also organize employees across China to participate in the "iWorld" program going forward.

(China Daily 06/30/2008 page8)