Founder aims to create innovative Chinese NGO

With the financial support by himself, Xue Yu founded Pearl Humanitarian Rescue (PHR) in 2015.

The 28-year-old entrepreneur, who was born in Shandong province, spent over 10 years in Australia before resettling in China with his family to pursue a career as an investor.

His rescue team was the first to reach the epicenter of the earthquake in Nepal last year.

In the event of a disaster, when rescue or relief is needed, PHR summons its contracted doctors and bears all the costs.

The business model of PHR is similar to that of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders. Rather than direct fundraising at first, Xue has focused on sustainable modeling and development to integrate resources of Chinese enterprises. Partners include Huawei, China Railway Group and other prominent institutions and individuals.

"However, we are different from them," Xue said. "We want to establish a brand-new model to team up with big and influential enterprises, starting with Chinese ones, to integrate all the resources, such as local personnel and vehicles, when we reach any corner of the world, since they have branches worldwide.

"This is an extension of the Belt and Road Initiative, I believe."

Xue said Chinese people should do more to help internationally, especially with disaster relief.

"China has become the second-largest economy in the world," he said. "The whole world is watching what we are doing. As of now, PHR has set up regional coordinating offices in Nepal, Ecuador and Myanmar. PHR will cover 17 major areas of poverty and refugee crisis by 2018."

PHR is planning and preparing to establish the Pearl Charity Foundation with the ChinaFoundaiton for Poverty Alleviation early next year in Beijing. "The outside world knows too little about our ability to contribute to other countries," Xue said. "We are in the process of completing our development plan, to make PHR a shining brand from China."

- Larry Lee