The city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province plans to develop 50 to 100 community foundations in three years to promote a mutual-aid society.

The threshold for starting such a community foundation has been reduced by half to just 1 million yuan ($161,000).

The foundations are expected to help the needy, better serve local society, improve public facilities, and finance community social organizations and volunteer services, according to the city's civil bureau.

"It has been a significant effort by the local government to nurture the social foundations to foster a fair and mutual-aid society and promote charity," said Du Peng, director of the Shenzhen Civil Bureau.

Six social foundations were set up on Sunday?- five are in the Guangming new area and one is in the Bao'an district.

They are the first group of new social foundations since the city issued an interim regulation for the development of social foundations in mid-March.

Some 21 companies in Guangming donated about 15 million yuan to the foundations, said Tian Fu, Party chief of Guangming.

Because Shenzhen is an affluent city, donations from Shenzhen residents top those of elsewhere in the country, but most of the donations benefit people outside the city through some large-scale charity foundations, according to the local civil bureau.

The social foundation will provide diversified channels for donors to decide whether their donations should be used in or out of the city, so that local residents also could benefit.