HONG KONG, May 14 (Xinhua) -- More Hong Kong organizations and individuals made donations on Wednesday, while the legislature of Hong Kong passed an urgent 350-million -HK dollar (44.87 million U. S. dollars) funding to help victims of a severe earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

    By 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(HKSAR) had received public donations from organizations and individuals worth 142.062 million HK dollars (about 18.24 million U.S. dollars) and 30.5 million Renminbi (about 4.36 million U.S. dollars) to help victims in the earthquake-hit areas in Sichuan.

    Among the above donations, the Li Ka Shing foundation donated 30 million HK dollars (3.85 million U.S. dollars) and Tsang hin chi, a business legend in Hong Kong, donated 10 million HK dollars(1.28 million U.S. dollars) to the quake victims.

    Members of the Finance Committee of Hong Kong Legislative Council attended an urgent special meeting on Wednesday morning. All legislative councilors from different political parties agreed unanimously to grant the urgent funding, of which 300 million HK dollars will be donated to the central government's coordinating center for rescue work in the quake-hit areas and 50 million HK dollars will open for local charitable institutions' applications for relief efforts in southwestern China.

    The Hong Kong Jockey Club launched a public fund-raising drive on Wednesday for earthquake victims in Sichuan. The Club had already pledged Tuesday that it would make an immediate donation of 30 million HK dollars (3.85 million U.S. dollars) to the Red Cross Society of China to support their relief work for those affected by the earthquake.

    "Besides making our own donation, we are setting up collection boxes at all our racecourses, clubhouses, offices and Off-Course Betting Branches to encourage the public as well as our own Club Members and staff to contribute to the relief effort," said Club Chairman John C C Chan, "We will closely monitor the latest development in the relief work and take further action as necessary."

    Hang Seng Bank Wednesday donated 2 million HK dollars (about 256,700 U.S. dollars) to the Hong Kong Red Cross China Relief Fund, which is providing emergency assistance and rehabilitation support to those in need in disaster areas.

    The HSBC Foundation also donated 10 million Renminbi (about 1. 43 million U.S. dollars) to support the relief work.

    A Hong Kong Social Welfare Department (SWD) spokesman said that as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, the department had received 21 applications and granted eight applications for public subscription permits to raise funds for people affected by the earthquake in Sichuan.

    The department would process all applications as quickly as possible and issue permits to organizations that had satisfied the relevant requirements of public fund-raising activities, the spokesman said.

    The quake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, rocked the Wenchuan County of China's Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. on Monday, leaving over 14,000 people dead.