Chinese e-commerce giant Jingdong Group (JD) on Wednesday denied defaulting on a $1 million donation to Grameen China (GC), a financing program similar to Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus' bank, blaming GC for not being qualified to receive donations in China.
GC President Gao Zhan on Tuesday told news site jiemian.com that he never reached JD's CEO Liu Qiangdong after they reached an agreement in December 2014 to jointly explore rural financial markets and provide better financial services to rural residents.
Liu verbally pledged to make a personal donation of $1 million to help GC establish a board of directors to run the institution as a "social enterprise," according to Gao.
Liu promised to make the donation to "comply with China's laws and regulations," read a statement JD sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.
GC has yet to register as a non-governmental organization (NGO) that can receive donations for public welfare projects in China, according to the statement. JD said GC also lacked the authority to undertake micro-loan projects.
JD expressed "regret" over GC's unilateral decision to release information to media, which it said damaged the reputation of JD and its CEO.
However, Wen Kejian, a financial researcher and GC volunteer, told jiemian.com that JD never required them to get NGO qualification or sought micro-loan qualification when Liu made the promise.
Wen said even Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, asked Liu about the donation via email, but received no response.
JD explained that Liu never checked his emails, noting that Yunus was very disappointed with the endless delay in the donation.
Jiemian.com reported that JD has been promoting rural finance businesses on its own after it announced it would collaborate with GC.
A consumer credit product JD had released for rural markets in July 2015 now covers 150,000 administrative villages in China.
In September of the same year, JD announced it would build a financial service system in rural areas, and two months later, the company opened its rural financial management business, according to the report.
