Brainstorming with Branson

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group. [Provided to China Daily]

During their discussions, Branson said he hopes that business leaders across the world could unite more, in using their influence on society and politicians to help solve problems in a more "quiet and peaceful way".

"In the West, finding solutions to such problems in many cases comes from public initiatives. China now needs to develop such initiatives," Ma says.

He adds that he found the details of some of Branson's public initiatives enlightening, and that he agreed with the British entrepreneur that great companies should be there not just to serve their customers but also to make the world a better place.

Ma also says that more nongovernment intervention is now needed to solve negative side-effects of China's rapid economic growth such as pollution, a scarcity of resources and a big income gap.

Branson highlighted two of his charitable activities.

He talked about Virgin Unite, the working name of The Virgin Foundation, Virgin's independent charitable arm, which pools volunteering efforts from across the group and its subsidiaries to grow the efforts of smaller grassroots charitable organizations.

Partnered with more than a dozen charities worldwide the company also provides a resource through the Internet by serving as an online donation center for those wanting to contribute.

He also explained his role in setting up "The B Team", a nonprofit initiative to encourage business to be a force for social, environmental and economic good.

Launched in October 2012, it is a group of global business leaders who share similar views about the need to transform business, delivering what he calls a "Plan B", which champions concrete solutions to help make capitalism a driving force for social, environmental and economic benefit.

Ma adds that compared with 120,000 public foundations in the United States, China has a mere 3,000.

"Public initiatives barely receive any public attention here, and are generally poorly understood," he says.

He explains that one reason for the strong public initiative sector in the US is the tax breaks they enjoy. In China, any nonprofit organization wanting to be exempt from tax needs to go through a complex bureaucratic process, and only about 100 exemptions are granted each year.

After leaving China Merchants Bank, Ma says he started working for One Foundation, the first private foundation in China, launched by Chinese film star Jet Li to provide a professional and transparent public service platform.