Shipwrecked victims charity foundation launched at Boao forum

The Titanic Foundation, a charity fund that aims to help victims of shipwreck accidents, will be officially launched at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2015 on Friday.[Special coverage]

The Titanic Foundation is intended to offer help to shipwreck survivors and relatives of shipwreck victims all over the world. It will also provide financial support to infrastructure projects built to prevent shipwrecks and sponsor free training programs on how to avoid shipwrecks.

The foundation was established by Seven Star Energy Investment Group, the investor of the "Unsinkable Titanic" project, together with some design and construction companies working on the project.

Founded in 2004, the initial business focus of Seven Star was clean energy. But the company later expanded its business to the cultural and tourist industries and announced a plan in January 2014 to build a full-scale replica of the Titanic - the famous luxury liner which struck an iceberg and went down in the North Atlantic in 1912.

The replica, which costs around 1 billion yuan ($160.9 million), is part of a planned theme park of Seven Star in Suining, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. The liner will be docked on a river in the theme park and will be the park's main attraction.

The theme park, with total investment of around 10 billion yuan, will feature various recreational facilities like thermal springs and an artificial beach and replicas of scenes from famous movies. The theme park will be around 110 kilometers away from Chengdu, the capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Su Shaojun, CEO and founder of Seven Star, said that a lot of love and responsibility was demonstrated by those on board as the Titanic sank. The new Titanic liner and the foundation were initiated to commemorate this spirit, he said.

The luxury liner is expected to receive customers in 2017. The company said that 5 percent of the liner's cabin sales, 3 percent of the liner's ticket sales and 1 percent of the theme park's revenue, will be allocated to the Titanic Foundation.

Seven Star is currently shooting a film about the Titanic in cooperation with Hollywood producers, and the company said that part of the box office of the movie is also expected to be allocated to the foundation.