BEIJING — Social donations from across China exceeded 90 billion yuan ($13.1 billion) in 2018, an official of the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on July 29.

China now has over 7,500 registered charity organizations, with net assets totaling about 160 billion yuan, according to Jia Xiaojiu, head of the ministry's department for philanthropy and social work, at a press conference.

Also, Jia said there are currently 204 charitable trust projects in China, with contracts involving about 2.25 billion yuan.

The official said there are over 1.2 million people in China working as professional social workers and 439,000 of them are certified workers.

More than 120 million people have registered as volunteers, and there are 12,000 registered organizations for volunteer services, Jia said.

Jia said the ministry also pays attention to giving full play to the strengths of charity, social work and volunteer service in the country's fight against poverty.

It has worked with authorities of finance, taxation and customs in issuing favorable taxation policies to encourage anti-poverty charity projects.

Furthermore, the central government has invested 18.9 million yuan this year to send social workers to the country's remote and border areas with large ethnic minority populations and old revolutionary base areas and to train local social workers there, according to Jia.

The ministry also strives to encourage volunteers' commitment in poverty reduction efforts by way of strengthening guidance, training, publicity of role models and information services, he said.