North China's Yili Industrial Group Co Ltd has been granted an award for its efforts to combat poverty in 2017, during a summit forum on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Beijing on Aug 21.

It is the only Chinese dairy enterprise that was honored during the forum.  

The forum, organized by the China Business Journal, gathered experts and entrepreneurs to exchange ideas about their CSR activities and responsibilities.

Yili noted at the forum that its commitment to CSR correlates with the enterprise's journey to inclusive and sustainable growth.

The dairy producer has taken the lead in responding to calls to fight poverty from the national government. In 2017, it partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture and Dairy Association of China to propose the D20 Milk Operation, with the aim of providing quality milk to children from impoverished families.  

It also launched the charity project Yili Nutrition 2020 to reduce poverty through nutrition surveys, health education and charitable donations in order to bring healthcare to children living in poor areas.

Since the end of last year, these projects have been carried out in Yunnan, Gansu, Hubei and Henan provinces, helping more than 120,000 students in impoverished areas from nearly a third of China's provinces. Yili has donated 12 million yuan ($1.75 million) and 4.8 million cartons of milk through these projects.

During the first few months of this year, the enterprise has continued to push forward its charitable projects in Tibet autonomous region, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Sichuan province.

With an investment of 21 million yuan, it plans to donate 6.24 million cartons of milk to poverty-stricken areas during the rest of 2018.